Distracted driving is a seemingly ever-growing menace, with cellphones accounting for most of the distractions that occur along the road every single day. Persons seem to have a hard time putting down their phones, even when they know that texting or talking can be hazardous.
The American Society of Hypertension held a meeting earlier this week in San Francisco, and some research results that were presented give distracted drivers even more incentive to put down their phones. A study has found that the mere act of talking on a cellphone might raise an individual’s blood pressure.
The results hail from the Guglielmo da Saliceto Hospital in Italy. The study gathered almost 100 people whose blood pressure could be described as mild or moderately high. The study participants were placed by themselves in a room, sat down in a chair, and hooked up to a device that could record blood pressure. The persons were then called on a mobile phone.
What the researchers found was that speaking on the phone tended to cause an increase in blood pressure. However, younger people who reported talking on their cellphones over 30 times a day did not see a similar jump in blood pressure, which suggested to researchers that interruptions might not be as problematic for that demographic.
One could easily see how heightened blood pressure could end up having ramifications on the road.