Harms to Health Caused by Aviation Noise Require Urgent Action; British Medical Journal, June 18, 2019
Selected Excerpts
In 1905, the Nobel Prize-winning bacteriologist Robert Koch wrote “The day will come when man will have to fight noise as inexorably as cholera and the plague.”
Koch was before his time and could not have anticipated the rapid growth of aviation worldwide and the impact that aviation noise would have on health. In October 2018, the World Health Organisation (WHO) published its long awaited new guidelines for environmental noise. [1] The guidelines make source-specific recommendations for noise from aviation, as well as road, rail, wind turbines, and leisure. They include tough new lower thresholds set for aviation noise, reflecting the growing body of evidence about the harmful effects of noise on health…
This issue is not new. In 1999, in an attempt to achieve a balance between health hazards for communities near airports with current and proposed developments, the WHO Charter on Transport and Environmental Health recommended that the health of the community should be put first when considering transport since adverse environmental effects fall disproportionately on the vulnerable, particularly children, and the infirm and older people [2]. It also recommended the “polluter pays” principle; the commonly accepted practice whereby those who produce pollution should bear the costs of managing it to prevent damage to human health or the environment. Britain was a co-signatory to this WHO Charter. Unfortunately, this charter seems to have had little effect, since in practice little notice has been taken of it when planning airport expansion and introducing airspace changes. Health impact assessments, if they were carried out, lacked transparency as they were often undertaken by airport operators. Seemingly there has been a reluctance to protect the health of the population in the face of commercial pressures pursuing economic benefits. The 2018 WHO guidelines, although designated for Europe, have global applications with input from Australia, America and Asia. The recommendations are much tougher than the WHO 1999 guidelines, so one would hope that they may have more effect…
There is insufficient appreciation of the fact that aircraft noise has substantial effects on cardiovascular disease including hypertension, ischemic heart disease, heart failure and stroke. [6-11] This may be because many studies have only been recently published.
The WHO 2018 report concludes that government policy and noise targets are inadequate and out of date, and it strongly recommends that new targets are established and incorporated into national policies. The WHO report also emphasises that communities potentially affected by any change in aviation noise exposure should be informed and involved in plans… 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 cost and long-term consequences of inaction will be considerable.