Aircraft noise, air pollution, and mortality from myocardial infarction.

Huss A, Spoerri A, Egger M, Rsli M; Swiss National Cohort Study Group.

Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.


Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
Myocardial infarction has been associated with both transportation noise and air pollution. We
examined residential exposure to aircraft noise and mortality from myocardial infarction, taking
air pollution into account.

METHODS:
We analyzed the Swiss National Cohort, which includes geocoded information on residence.
Exposure to aircraft noise and air pollution was determined based on geospatial noise and air-
pollution (PM10) models and distance to major roads. We used Cox proportional hazard models,
with age as the timescale. We compared the risk of death across categories of A-weighted sound
pressure levels (dB(A)) and by duration of living in exposed corridors, adjusting for PM10
levels, distance to major roads, sex, education, and socioeconomic position of the municipality.

RESULTS:
We analyzed 4.6 million persons older than 30 years who were followed from near the end of
2000 through December 2005, including 15,532 deaths from myocardial infarction (ICD-10
codes I 21, I 22). Mortality increased with increasing level and duration of aircraft noise. The
adjusted hazard ratio comparing 60 dB(A) with <45 dB(A) was 1.3 (95% confidence interval =
0.96-1.7) overall, and 1.5 (1.0-2.2) in persons who had lived at the same place for at least 15
years. None of the other endpoints (mortality from all causes, all circulatory disease,
cerebrovascular disease, stroke, and lung cancer) was associated with aircraft noise.

CONCLUSION:
Aircraft noise was associated with mortality from myocardial infarction, with a dose-response
relationship for level and duration of exposure. The association does not appear to be explained
by exposure to particulate matter air pollution, education, or socioeconomic status of the
municipality.












What are the health and environmental issues associated with the
airport noise and air pollution at airports?
John Cermak,

Researchers have known for years that exposure to excessively-loud noise can cause changes in
blood pressure as well as changes in sleep and digestive patterns -- all signs of stress on the
human body. The very word noise itself derives from the Latin word noxia, which means
injury or hurt.

Airport Noise and Pollution Increases Risk for Illness
On a 1997 questionnaire distributed to two groups--one living near a major airport, and the other
in a quiet neighborhood--two-thirds of those living near the airport indicated they were bothered
by aircraft noise, and most said that it interfered with their daily activities. The same two-thirds
complained more than the other group of sleep difficulties, and also perceived themselves as
being in poorer health.

Perhaps even more alarming, the European Commission, which governs the European Union
(E.U.), considers living near an airport to be a risk factor for coronary heart disease and stroke,
as increased blood pressure from noise pollution can trigger these more serious maladies. The
E.U. estimates that 20 percent of Europes population -- or about 80 million people -- are
exposed to airport noise levels it considers unhealthy and unacceptable.

Airport Noise Affects Children
Airport noise can also have negative effects on childrens health and development. A 1980 study
examining the impact of airport noise on childrens health found higher blood pressure in kids
living near Los Angeles LAX airport than in those living farther away. A 1995 German study
found a link between chronic noise exposure at Munichs International Airport and elevated
nervous system activity and cardiovascular levels in children living nearby. And a 2005 study
published in the prestigious British medical journal, The Lancet, found that kids living near
airports in Britain, Holland and Spain lagged behind their classmates in reading by two months
for every five decibel increase above average noise levels in their surroundings. The study also
associated aircraft noise with lowered reading comprehension, even after socio-economic
differences were considered.

Citizen Groups Concerned About Effects of Airport Noise and Pollution
Living near an airport also means facing significant exposure to air pollution. Jack Saporito of
the U.S. Citizens Aviation Watch Association (CAW), a coalition of concerned municipalities
and advocacy groups, cites several studies linking pollutants common around airports--such as
diesel exhaust, carbon monoxide and leaked chemicals--to cancer, asthma, liver damage, lung
disease, lymphoma, myeloid leukemia, and even depression. CAW is lobbying for the clean up
of jet engine exhaust as well as the scrapping or modification of airport expansion plans across
the country.

Another group working on this issue is Chicagos Alliance of Residents Concerning OHare,
which lobbies and conducts extensive public education campaigns in an effort to cut noise and
pollution and rein in expansion plans at the worlds busiest airport. According to the group, five
million area residents may be suffering adverse health effects as a result of OHare, only one of
four major airports in the region.












































Air pollution from commercial aircraft exhaust has long been
recognized as a environmental problem, but what about noise
pollution?

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.

Dr. Ian Waitz's group in aeronautics and astronautics has come up with an idea that could
significantly reduce the noise from jet engines by injecting air from the trailing edges of the
rotating blades within the engine.To aircraft manufacturers and operators, noise is a problem as
serious as emissions. "It significantly impacts the economics," said Dr. Waitz, an assistant
professor and director of the Aero-Environmental Research Laboratory, which also has a
program addressing emissions from aircraft engines.

Noise from planes flying over residential areas impairs people's ability to work, learn in school
and sleep, and consequently also results in lowered property values in affected areas. As
passenger volume increases and new and larger airports are built, noise is becoming even more
of a concern.

Measures to control noise production include Federal Aviation Administration certification
standards for new airplanes, restricted flight paths, flight curfews and ticket taxes. NASA, which
is funding Dr. Waitz's research, has set a goal of reducing aircraft engine noise by 6 EPNdB
(effective perceived noise decibels). Successful design innovations may eventually be adopted as
requirements by the FAA and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Much of the noise from gas turbine engines comes from air flowing back through the rapidly
spinning fan blades at the front of the engine, Dr. Waitz said. Behind each blade is a wake, or an
area of lower-speed air, much like the calmer water behind a rock sticking out of a stream. When
these wakes move over stationary blades called stators, which are located downstream of the
rotating blades, they produce strong, unsteady pressures. This unsteady pressure field is what
causes most of the sound associated with aircraft engines, Dr. Waitz explained.

Most noise-control measures, such as acoustic liners in the engines, have focused on reducing the
amplitude of the sound after it is produced. But Dr. Waitz and his colleagues are working on a
method of cutting down on noise at the source. Their idea is to "fill in" the wake behind each
rotor blade by pushing air through the trailing edges of the rotating blades.

This recently became feasible with the advent of newer engines having fan blades that are larger
than ever before at three to four feet high. At this size, the thin blades can be made hollow
(indeed, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce are manufacturing hollow titanium fan blades, which
are used in the engines for the new Boeing 777, Dr. Waitz said). It is therefore possible to blow
air through the inside of each blade and expel it from the trailing edge, where it mixes with the
air flowing around the blade and makes the flow into the stator more uniform.

The new technique is made possible by the trend toward larger and larger fan blades in engines, a
trend which is driven by the desire for higher fuel efficiencies, Dr. Waitz said.

Dr. Waitz believes that the wake-management approach will prove more successful than "active
control." Behind this competing technique is the fact that sounds of a given tone produce a
unique sound wave pattern; when a sound with a wave pattern that is a mirror image of the
undesirable sound is produced, the two cancel out. However, this technique works best with pure
tones rather than the broadband, multitonal "white noise" that engines produce, Dr. Waitz said.

The wake-management technique has been tested on a simplified scale model with good results,
Dr. Waitz said. Within the next year, it will be tried with a model of a complete gas turbine
engine fan in a lab; if that is successful, it may be tested the following year at NASA's Lewis
Research Center. Preliminary results have shown that the technique could indeed meet the
NASA goal of reducing engine noise by 6 EPNdB, he said.