Dr Lars Jarup, 64, a reader in environmental medicine and public health at Imperial College London, reported this week that noise from airliners raises people’s blood pressure even when they’re asleep.

Always worked in noise? No. My first degree was in maths, physics and computer science. I worked in computers for ten years, but got fed up dealing with machines and not human beings. At 35 I took advantage of a new chance in my native Sweden for mature people to study medicine.

Why study sound? It is fairly well known that 70-80 per cent of cancer has environmental causation. But there is not much good research into the precise nature of this. I was intrigued by the role of noise in illness, so five or six years ago we began to look at this. People had looked at air pollution, but not noise.

What’s next? We are completing another piece of research looking at whether noise has a longer-term effect by raising stress hormones. That’s not been published yet.

Why work in London? Ten years ago I moved to the UK to do work on spatial analysis at Imperial College. It was only supposed to be short-term but I am still here. I was always interested in living in London. It’s a great place.

Bit loud, though? I live in a flat by the river in Rotherhythe, Southeast London, and it’s quite peaceful – except for the airliners circling overhead waiting to land at Heathrow.

Do you hate aircraft? ActuaIly, I had a pilot’s licence some years ago. But it was expensive to keep flying the number of annual hours required to retain your licence, so I gave it up.

But you love quietness? I play the piano, classical and jazz. I used to be in a jazz band when I was younger. Jazz is one person’s sound and another person’s noise.

Any less sonorous hobbies? I like cooking at weekends for my wife and grown-up children.

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