[Relationship between noise and blood pressure in an airport environment].

OBJECTIVES: The authors have tried to assess the noise annoyance and its relation with the development of hypertension for the staff working at the civilian airport of Algiers. This population is constantly subject to aircraft noises. The noise, through creating stress, acts on the central nervous system and on the autonomic nervous system and is likely to cause hypertension by increasing peripheral resistance, total cholesterol, fatty acids, adrenaline, cortisol and blood glucose. A number of studies revealed that starting from 65 decibels, the noise causes hypertension for patients of more than 40 years following 5 years of exposure.

METHODS: An analytical study was conducted in 2000, which made the comparison between two groups of men working at Air Algérie company. There were 91 officers belonging to air crew, whose number was estimated at that time at 547, and whose average age was 49 years, compared with 111 officers of the ground crew on a total of 1200 persons and whose average age was 56 years. All those officers have received work medical consultation. Patients with suspected hypertension were systematically oriented to cardiologist. Similarly, everyone has had a biological assessment, an ophthalmologic consultation and ENT consultation as well.

RESULTS: Hypertension was found in 9.25% of the ground crew and in 16.63% of the air crew (P<0.001). Hypertension is more common among air crew, subject to a more important noise nuisance, at a younger age and with less risk factors than the ground crew, who develops hypertension with similar prevalence to general population's but at a younger age. The air crew gives more importance to treatment due to the risk of losing their navigation license. The ENT examination was abnormal in 39% of the air crew versus 8% of the ground crew.

CONCLUSION: In the light of these results, the noise seems to really interfere in the development of hypertension in airport environment. It would be more interesting to identify the number of strokes and particularly acute coronary syndromes which are far from being rare in this population subject to this noise annoyance. Preventive measures are of course extremely important.