August 16, 2024
A study by the American College of Cardiology has found that chronic occupational noise exposure in power loom weavers was associated with increased blood pressure levels.
The study, which the college said was presented this week at the ACC Asia 2024 conference in Delhi, India, also said a worker’s chance of suffering from high blood pressure increased by 10% for each year of exposure.
“In addition to treating the high blood pressure through appropriate means, we must find ways to mitigate the exposure to the noise if we want to reduce the cardiovascular risk of these patients,” Golam Dastageer Prince, a doctor from Bangladesh and one of the study’s lead authors, said in a statement.
Researchers looked predominantly at 289 male workers in Bangladesh between January and December 2023 and found that the study population did not wear hearing protection.
The study’s authors said the goal is to raise awareness of noise-induced hearing loss but also to focus on improving workplace safety by using appropriate personal protective equipment.
The study participants were found to have a 31.5% rate of high blood pressure with an additional 53.3% being considered prehypertensive.
The study focused on workers exposed to more than 85 decibels of occupational noise for long periods of time.
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