LOUD: Is noise an invisible killer?

BBC health correspondent James Gallagher investigates how our noisy world is damaging our health.

He finds out why noise increases our risk of health problems, like heart attacks, sleep problems and anxiety, and can even affect how long we live.

James spends two days in Barcelona – one of the noisiest cities in Europe – to meet the people whose health is being ruined by noise and the scientists and doctors trying to solve the problem.

He also visits London to be experimented on in a lab to find out how noise changes the body, and hears from Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, one of the loudest places on the planet.

James discovers that even when we think we’ve tuned out loud noise it can still be damaging our health and why we all need to start paying attention to the noise around us.

Presenter: James Gallagher
Producer: Gerry Holt
Dhaka reporting: Salman Saeed
Content editor: Martin Smith
Production co-ordinator: Jana Bennett- Holesworth

(Photo: A woman clasps her ears as she watches traffic rushing by. Credit: Getty Images)