The links between ill-health and aircraft noise

CAA’s page on aviation noise and health

These pages from the CAA contain a very comprehensive review of the issues around noise from aviation. It’s worth checking out and going back for updates as the literature gets updated.

Stay Grounded on noise and ill-health

There are so many studies available on this subject, we can’t do it justice on a few pages, but this page from our friends at Stay Grounded has an excellent study of the issues.

• The number of people being Highly Sleep Disturbed will be 42,000 and the number of people being Highly Annoyed will be 93,500.
• 11897 households will experience increased day time noise in 2030. This may occur later than 2030 as the expansion plans have slowed down due to covid and the withdrawal of the original application.
• 26,100 more people will hear between 1 and 50 more planes which are loud enough to disturb on an average summer day. 
• 34,000 more people to be subjected to an increase in the amount of day time plane noise loud enough to have an adverse effect on them.
• 36,700 more people will experience night time plane noise loud enough to have an observable adverse effect on them and 700 more people will experience significant adverse effects.
• 123,000 more people will be exposed to an increase in night time plane noise at levels which have observable adverse impacts.

A referenced version of these statistics is available via this link.

In a recent study published by Lehigh University, Lafayette College and the University of Colorado, researchers have provided a causal estimate linking high-level noise exposure to a key health challenge, that of low birth weight (< 2,500 grams or approximately 5.5 pounds). 

Described in Residential Noise Exposure and Health: Evidence from Aviation Noise and Birth Outcomes, their analysis revealed an increase of 1.6 percentage points–or 22 percent–in the risk of having a low birth weight baby among mothers living close to an airport, in the direction of the runway, exposed to noise levels over the 55 dB threshold (the threshold used by the EPA and the WHO for the protection of public health), and during the period when new flight pattern changes were more actively implemented at the airport.

In the vicinity of Leeds Bradford Airport, on the daytime noise contour maps, it can be seen that the area affected by the 55dB threshold described in the study, includes much of Horsforth and Tinshill and beyond the ring road to Westpark and Hawksworth in the SE direction.

To the NW it affects the Eastern parts of Guiseley and Yeadon and extends as far out as Bradford Road (A6038) in Otley.

This is a shocking and, until now, unforeseen consequence of airport development on such an extensive residential area. To quote Professor Yang who led the study:

“Our findings have important policy implications regarding the trade-off between flight pattern optimization and human health. This is especially important given the long-term negative impact of low birth weight on a range of later-life outcomes such as lifetime earnings, educational achievement and long-term health.”

From the Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer 2017 – Health Impacts of All Pollution:

Several studies have shown that neighborhood noise can have a negative impact on physical and mental wellbeing in adults, and one study found that exposure to neighbourhood noise at home is associated with conduct problems and hyperactivity in children. [1]

Noise acts as a psychosocial stressor [2], and the psychological reaction to it is influenced strongly by a number of personal, situational and environmental factors.[3]

[1] Dreger S, Meyer N, Fromme H, Bolte G. Environmental noise and incident mental health problems: A prospective cohort study among school children in Germany. Environmental Research 143 (2015)

[2] Job RFS. Community response to noise: a review of factors influencing the relationship between noise exposure and reaction. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1988; 83: 991–10 01.

[3] Miedema HME, Vos H. Demographic and attitudinal factors that modify annoyance from transportation noise. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1999; 105 (6)

The World Health Organisation states that the learning of children in primary schools near airports is adversely affected by noise. Double glazed classrooms do not provide sufficient noise insulation.

There are 36 schools affected by proximity to Leeds Braford Airport’s flightpath to a greater or lesser degree. These include Secondary and Primary schools, some close to the airport are very badly affected.

Many studies have found effects of aircraft noise exposure at school or at home on children’s reading comprehension or memory skills (Evans & Hygge, 2007). The RANCH study (Road traffic and Aircraft Noise and children’s Cognition & Health) of 2844, 9-10 year old children, from 89 schools around London Heathrow, Amsterdam Schiphol, and Madrid Barajas airports found that aircraft noise was associated with poorer reading comprehension and poorer recognition memory after taking social position and road traffic noise into account (Stansfeld et al., 2005).

Reading began to fall below average at around 55dB LAeq 16 hour at school but as the association is linear, (thus there is no specific threshold above which noise effects begin) any reduction in aircraft noise exposure at schools should lead to an improvement in reading comprehension, supporting a policy to not only insulate schools exposed to the highest levels of aircraft noise. The development of cognitive skills such as reading and memory is important, not only in terms of educational achievement, but also for subsequent life chances and adult health (Kuh & Ben-Shlomo, 2004). In the UK, reading age was delayed by up to 2 months for a 5dB increase in aircraft noise exposure (Clark et al., 2006). The UK primary schools in the RANCH study ranged in aircraft noise exposure from 34dB LAeq 16 hour to 68 dB LAeq 16 hour. If we take a 20dB difference in aircraft noise exposure between schools, the study would estimate an 8-month difference in reading age.