Associations between Aircraft Noise Exposure and Self-Reported Sleep Duration and Quality in the United States-Based Prospective Nurses’ Health Study Cohort

This paper reveals how exposure to noise pollution increases violent crime. To identify the causal effect of noise pollution, I use daily variation in aircraft landing approaches to instrument noise levels. Increasing background noise by 4.1 decibels causes a 6.6% increase in the violent crime rate…The results imply a substantial societal burden from noise pollution beyond health impacts.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), recognizing that aircraft noise intrudes on children’s learning, spent millions of dollars to quiet schools subjected to aircraft noise. Yet, despite other efforts by the FAA to lessen noise impacts, residents across the United States are still experiencing much aircraft noise in their homes.

Exposure to road traffic noise at school, but not at home, was associated with slower working memory, complex working memory, and attention development, in primary school children in Barcelona, Spain.

A recent retrospective case-crossover study at Zurich airport demonstrated that aircraft noise exposure levels in the 2 hours preceding the event were associated with cardiovascular death.23 Thus, nocturnal noise exposure may not only contribute to pathophysiological changes that increase cardiovascular disease risk, it may also evoke physiological arousal that triggers fatal events.

Noise causes annoyance and stress and disrupts sleep and daily activities. These responses set off a cascade of physiological events involving increased production of stress hormones and neurotransmitters that raise blood pressure, heart rate, and other factors which, in turn, raise the risks of stroke, hypertension, heart attack, metabolic disturbances, and death.

Nighttime exposure to aircraft noise with similar Leq, but different number of noise events, results in a comparable worsening of vascular function. Adverse effects of nighttime aircraft noise exposure on cardiac function (diastolic dysfunction) seemed stronger the higher number of noise events.

Findings suggest that night-time aircraft noise can trigger acute cardiovascular mortality. The association was similar to that previously observed for long-term aircraft noise exposure.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has undertaken a multi-year research effort to quantify the impacts of aircraft noise exposure on communities around commercial service airports in the United States (US). The goal of this research effort was to develop an updated and nationally representative civil aircraft dose-response curve, quantifying the relationship between aircraft noise exposure and community annoyance.

In this study we find that among all births that occurred between 2004 and 2016, there is an increase of 1.6 percentage points in the likelihood of having a Low Birth Weight (LBW) baby among mothers living close to the airport, in the direction of the runway, exposed to noise levels over the 55 dB threshold, and during the period when NextGen was more actively implemented at the airport.

A cumulative worsening was evident in the hypertension plus noise mice group over hypertensive-only and noise-only controls.

The development of satellite based GPS “air navigation” or RNAV, introduced as a replacement for ground-based radar tracking, has allowed for flights at lower altitudes and at closer time intervals. It has also led to a consolidation of formerly more disbursed flight paths, producing a “super-highway” of flights over defined areas. The resulting noise levels impact concentration, communication and learning during the day and disrupt sleep at night.

Long-term exposure to environmental noise - think planes, trains, and automobiles -- has been linked in multiple studies to adverse health effects such as poor sleep, psychiatric disorders, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, the mechanisms linking noise to such diseases has not been well understood. Investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital and colleagues have identified a potential mechanism through which long-term exposure to noise leads to inflammation, blood vessel damage, and heart disease.

The findings of the 2018 WHO guidelines contain scientific data that is loud and clear. This should be the catalyst for revised policies and actions to ensure there is an equitable balance between economic benefit and the health and wellbeing of communities.

The main purpose of these guidelines is to provide recommendations for protecting human health from exposure to environmental noise originating from various sources: transportation (road traffic, railway and aircraft) noise, wind turbine
noise and leisure noise. They provide robust public health advice underpinned by evidence, which is essential to drive policy action that will protect communities from the adverse effects of noise.

Health costs associated with noise from changing flight patterns over populated urban landscapes far outweigh the benefits of reduced flight times, according to a new study. The researchers used flights from LaGuardia airport that have historically flown over Flushing Meadows and the U.S. Tennis Center in Queens - known as the TNNIS route -- as a case study to explore the trade-offs between more efficient flight routes and suffering on the ground.

This thesis questions whether an exposure-dose relationship between measurable aircraft sound and health can be established. The significance of this research is that highly concentrated global populations live near airports and are receiving a dangerous unknown and undefined health exposure.

The paper examines the research linking noise to health effects, questions why governments have not seriously attempted to lower noise levels and suggest ways to lessen the din. Doing so would be beneficial to our health and also wise economically.

Noise is defined as “unwanted sound.” Aircraft noise is one, if not the most detrimental environmental effect of aviation. It can cause community annoyance, disrupt sleep, adversely affect academic performance of children, and could increase the risk for cardiovascular disease of people living in the vicinity of airports.

This consensus paper was prepared by the Impacts of Science Group of the Committee for Aviation Environmental Protection of the International Civil Aviation Organization and summarizes the state of the science of noise effects research in the areas of noise measurement and prediction, community annoyance, children’s learning, sleep disturbance, and health.