Assessing the environmental impacts of aircraft noise and emissions

The authors examined whether air pollution at school (nitrogen dioxide) is associated with poorer child cognition and health and whether adjustment for air pollution explains or moderates previously observed associations between aircraft and road traffic noise at school and children's cognition in the 2001-2003 Road Traffic and Aircraft Noise Exposure and Children's Cognition and Health (RANCH) project. This secondary analysis of a subsample of the United Kingdom RANCH sample examined 719 children who were 9-10 years of age from 22 schools around London's Heathrow airport for whom air pollution data were available. Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling. Air pollution exposure levels at school were moderate, were not associated with a range of cognitive and health outcomes, and did not account for or moderate associations between noise exposure and cognition. Aircraft noise exposure at school was significantly associated with poorer recognition memory and conceptual recall memory after adjustment for nitrogen dioxide levels. Aircraft noise exposure was also associated with poorer reading comprehension and information recall memory after adjustment for nitrogen dioxide levels. Road traffic noise was not associated with cognition or health before or after adjustment for air pollution. Moderate levels of air pollution do not appear to confound associations of noise on cognition and health, but further studies of higher air pollution levels are needed.

/pdf/does-traffic-related-air-pollution-explain-associations-of-3t8ztb3634.pdf

Does Traffic-related Air Pollution Explain Associations of Aircraft and Road Traffic Noise Exposure on Children's Health and Cognition? A Secondary Analysis of the United Kingdom Sample From the RANCH Project

Research has found that human-caused noise can detract from the quality of the visitor experience in national parks and related areas. Moreover, impacts to the visitor experience can be managed by formulating indicators and standards of quality as suggested in park and outdoor recreation management frameworks, such as Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP), as developed by the U.S. National Park Service. The research reported in this article supports the formulation of indicators and standards of quality for human-caused noise at Muir Woods National Monument, California. Phase I identified potential indicators of quality for the soundscape of Muir Woods. A visitor “listening exercise” was conducted, where respondents identified natural and human-caused sounds heard in the park and rated the degree to which each sound was “pleasing” or “annoying.” Certain visitor-caused sounds such as groups talking were heard by most respondents and were rated as annoying, suggesting that these sounds may be a good indicator of quality. Loud groups were heard by few people but were rated as highly annoying, whereas wind and water were heard by most visitors and were rated as highly pleasing. Phase II measured standards of quality for visitor-caused noise. Visitors were presented with a series of 30-second audio clips representing increasing amounts of visitor-caused sound in the park. Respondents were asked to rate the acceptability of each audio clip on a survey. Findings suggest a threshold at which visitor-caused sound is judged to be unacceptable, and is therefore considered as noise. A parallel program of sound monitoring in the park found that current levels of visitor-caused sound sometimes violate this threshold. Study findings provide an empirical basis to help formulate noise-related indicators and standards of quality in parks and related areas.

Understanding and Managing Experiential Aspects of Soundscapes at Muir Woods National Monument

This systematic review assesses the quality of the evidence across individual studies on the effect of environmental noise (road traffic, aircraft, and train and railway noise) on cognition. Quantitative non-experimental studies of the association between environmental noise exposure on child and adult cognitive performance published up to June 2015 were reviewed: no limit was placed on the start date for the search. A total of 34 papers were identified, all of which were of child populations. 82% of the papers were of cross-sectional design, with fewer studies of longitudinal or intervention design. A range of cognitive outcomes were examined. The quality of the evidence across the studies for each individual noise source and cognitive outcome was assessed using an adaptation of GRADE methodology. This review found, given the predominance of cross-sectional studies, that the quality of the evidence across studies ranged from being of moderate quality for an effect for some outcomes, e.g., aircraft noise effects on reading comprehension and on long-term memory, to no effect for other outcomes such as attention and executive function and for some noise sources such as road traffic noise and railway noise. The GRADE evaluation of low quality evidence across studies for some cognitive domains and for some noise sources does not necessarily mean that there are no effects: rather, that more robust and a greater number of studies are required.

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/2/285/pdf

WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region: A Systematic Review on Environmental Noise and Cognition

Environmental noise exposure, such as road traffic noise and aircraft noise, is associated with a range of health outcomes in children. Children demonstrate annoyance responses to noise, and noise is also related to lower well-being and stress responses, such as increased levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline. Noise does not cause more serious mental health problems, but there is growing evidence for an association with increased hyperactivity symptoms. Studies also suggest that noise might cause changes in cardiovascular functioning, and there is some limited evidence for an effect on low birth weight. There is robust evidence for an effect of school noise exposure on children’s cognitive skills such as reading and memory, as well as on standardised academic test scores. Environmental noise does not usually reach levels that are likely to affect children’s hearing; however, increasing use of personal electronic devices may leave some children exposed to harmful levels of noise.

/pdf/health-effects-of-noise-exposure-in-children-1fylk04al4.pdf

Health Effects of Noise Exposure in Children

https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/10000/dot_10000_DS1.pdf

FHWA Traffic Noise Model, Version 1.0 Technical Manual

Most research on sleep awakenings caused by aircraft noise determines the percent of awakenings from an average person's exposure to single aircraft events. Such research estimates the percent of people who would likely be awakened by a single aircraft of a given sound level, if everyone had average sensitivity to sleep awakening. However, such results do not show what percent of a composite population (of all sensitivities) would likely be awakened by a full night of aircraft events, of varying sound levels. It is this latter type of disturbance that provides a useful answer to the common question : How will altered nighttime aircraft operations affect awakenings in the communities surrounding an airport? This paper describes an alternative method for analyzing available sleep-awakening data to provide an answer to this question. The method is determined with one set of sleep-disturbance data, to yield dose-response relationships that may be applied to actual airport operations. The relationships are then validated by applying them to independent sleep-awakening data, to predict the occurrence of sleep awakening in that data set. Predicted sleep awakening (and its predicted uncertainty) matched the independent data well.

https://www.noisequest.psu.edu/pdfs-documents/sleep.pdf

Alternative analysis of sleep-awakening data

FHWA traffic noise model, version 1.0 : user's guide

Dose-response relationships derived from data collected at Grand Canyon, Haleakala and Hawaii Volcanoes National Parks

: This study was initiated as part of the cooperative US Air Force/National Park Service efforts to understand and effectively manage the potential adverse effects military air crew training can have on the National Parks. Through simultaneous sound data acquisition and Park user interviews, data were collected that provided a basis for determining how military jet overflights can affect visitor experience at a site in White Sands National Monument, New Mexico. Several useful findings resulted from the analysis. First, visitors can distinguish between the concepts of "annoyance" and "interference" produced by aircraft sound. Annoyance is an emotional reaction, while interference is more of an objective judgment. Visitors can find that the sound of aircraft interferes with the natural soundscape, but are not necessarily annoyed. Visitors believe annoyance results if the interference is often or severe enough. Second, visitors tend to be less annoyed by aircraft noise if they remember learning that they could hear or see aircraft while in the Park. This finding shows the importance of informing visitors about possible aircraft overflights - i.e., managing visitor expectations. Finally, aircraft noise is likely to produce less annoyance if aircraft fly over in close succession, rather than widely spaced, one at a time.

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA379467&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf

Grant S. Anderson

Papers

FHWA Traffic Noise Model, Version 1.0 Technical Manual

Alternative analysis of sleep-awakening data

FHWA traffic noise model, version 1.0 : user's guide

Dose-response relationships derived from data collected at Grand Canyon, Haleakala and Hawaii Volcanoes National Parks

Mitigating the Effects of Military Aircraft Overflights on Recreational Users of Parks