Noise Pollution Ages Birds Faster

The effects of noise pollution are only now being taken seriously. The research on how increasing traffic noises affects living beings is showing clear and detrimental effects. At the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany, researchers have teamed up with the North Dakota State University to study the effects of traffic noise on the telomere.

Telomere are the caps on the ends of chromosomes that protect genes from getting damaged. The shorter a telomere is, the more biological aging is inferred. The study was conducted on Zebra Flinches and measured their telomeres shortly after they left the nest to a 120 days later. It was established that those who were exposed to more noise pollution from traffic sources, were seen to have shorter telomeres.

In fact those birds whose parents had been exposed to the noise during courtship and egg laying had even shorter telomeres. This science project just managed to prove that these birds were born with shorter lives than those which were not subjected to the detrimental effects of noise pollution. What makes this study scary is that the effects of noise pollution are supposed to run across the board for all living things. Does that mean living with noise pollution ensures humans also have shorter lives?