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

2. Methods

To examine the most relevant studies, optimize resources and provide a timely review of the subject, this analysis was limited to the evidence for cardiovascular biological and health effects of community aircraft noise around major civilian airports. As a result of the arguments described in the Introduction section, endpoints considered in the analysis for childhood studies were resting blood pressure and stress hormone levels. In adult populations, the endpoints were hypertension and ischemic heart disease. Other endpoints of interest such as sleep disturbance, annoyance, mental health and potential effects on learning in children will be dealt with in future "It's Your Health" publications and any required reports.

The report was based on examination of relevant English language reviews, journal and conference papers, published from 1975 to 1999. Peer reviewed papers were given more weight in formulating the conclusions. Results from a limited number of traffic noise studies and one aircraft noise paper around a military airport were also included because of the limited data on the potential for adverse cardiovascular effects from aircraft noise and because of the public health importance of traffic noise.

Noise from low flying military training flights was excluded because of the considerably different character of the noise compared to civilian airport flights.

Occupational studies were excluded from the review because they could only be used to assess the plausibility of cardiovascular disease hypotheses for environmental noise research, but not to draw conclusions about the effects. Most occupational noise studies do find increases in blood pressure, but this effect often disappears when adjustments are made for confounding factors. Unfortunately, many studies do not adequately correct for potential confounding factors present in the work environment (Stansfeld and Haines, 1997; Thompson, 1997). These results make it difficult to extrapolate the findings of occupational noise exposures to conclusions about the effects of environmental noise exposure.