Noise From Civilian Aircraft in the Vicinity of Airports - Implications for Human Health - Noise, Stress and Cardiovascular Disease

1. Introduction

The purpose of this report is to provide detailed arguments and conclusions on the potential for high levels of aircraft noise to be linked to stress and cardiovascular disease. The analysis was prompted by several factors.

1. A link between cardiovascular effects and high levels of aircraft noise could not be excluded. There were significant discrepancies between several comprehensive reviews and policy statements on the subject. For example, reports of the Health Council of the Netherlands (Passchier-Vermeer, 1993; HCN, 1994; HCN, 1999) indicated that there was sufficient evidence of a causal relationship between ischemic heart disease and noise and between hypertension and noise, for 24 hour time-averaged noise levels exceeding 70 dBA outdoors. The report of the Institute for Environmental Health (IEH, 1997) indicated that there was sufficient evidence of a causal relationship between only ischemic heart disease at levels exceeding 70 dBA outdoors but the effect was not noted as being particularly important. The recent World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for community noise (WHO, 1999) concluded that cardiovascular effects are associated with long-term exposure to 24 hour time-averaged noise levels above 65 dBA but that the associations are weak.
2. Chronic noise exposure has the potential for important public health consequences. Population exposure to transportation noise and the prevalence of cardiovascular disease in Canada suggest that this type of noise exposure has the potential to be a significant public health problem. It is estimated that about 2 million Canadians live in areas where road traffic noise exceeds 24 hour time-averaged outdoor levels of 65 dBA and as many as 50,000 live in areas where air traffic noise levels exceeds 65 dBA. Given that high blood pressure and heart disease are the 2^ndand 6^th most prevalent chronic diseases in Canada, respectively, there is the potential for transportation noise to have important consequences to public health.
3. Aircraft noise is a more highly annoying source of noise than road traffic noise and community groups in Canada have expressed significant concerns about the potential health effects of aircraft noise in the vicinity of airports. Of particular concern has been a recent longitudinal scientific study in Munich on the potential for physiological indications of chronic stress, particularly those relating to increases in blood pressure and stress hormone levels, in elementary school children living in areas exposed to aircraft noise. Theoretically, blood pressure and stress hormone effects could relate to long term effects on cardiovascular health.
4. Airport noise management committees and Transport Canada' Aircraft Noise and Emissions Committee require timely and reliable information on the health effects of noise so that they can be factored into decisions concerning airport and aircraft operation and regulation, as well as international aircraft noise policies affecting the Canadian air industry and air safety.