Take Action: Federal Register Notice - Submit Comments on Aviation Noise Policy

May 4, 2023

"The FAA will consider how changes to the civil aviation noise policy may better inform agency decision making, the types of impacts it considers in making decisions (e.g., community annoyance, certain types of adverse health impacts highly correlated with aviation noise exposure), and potential improvements to how the FAA analyzes, explains, and presents changes in exposure to civil aviation noise." – Request for Comments on the Federal Aviation Administration's Review of the Civil Aviation Noise Policy, Notice of Public Meeting

The record for submitting comments will remain open until 7/31/2023.

The Federal Register Notice also lists four virtual public meetings on this action:

1. Tuesday, May 16, 2023, 1 to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET), virtual;
2. Thursday, May 18, 2023, 6 to 8:00 p.m. ET, virtual;
3. Tuesday, May 23, 2023, 9 to 11:00 p.m. ET, virtual; and
4. Thursday, May 25, 2023, 3 to 5:00 p.m. ET, virtual.

To go directly to the comment page click here.

Adverse Impacts of Aviation Noise

In the words of Jamie Banks, the Founder and President of Quiet Communities Inc., "The FAA's common reference to noise as 'an annoyance' trivializes its serious health impacts. No one affected by aviation noise refers to it as 'an annoyance' but rather, uses words like 'assault,' and 'torture.' The impacts they describe are consistent with what has been reported in the scientific literature and include deteriorating mental and physical health, anxiety, depression, anger, exhaustion, fear; disrupted sleep, work, concentration, and communication."

As stated in her testimony before the Maryland Legislature in 2022,

• Aircraft noise disrupts activities and sleep and causes stress responses that increase high blood pressure, and the risks of heart disease, stroke, and mortality. Seniors affected by aircraft noise are more likely to have heart disease and be hospitalized. Low frequency noise and nighttime aviation noise are especially hazardous. A recent study showed that quieter skies during the pandemic improved cardiovascular health.
• Aircraft noise can contribute to anxiety and depression.
• Aircraft noise negatively affects children's learning and cognitive development. A ten-year study of students from 6000 schools near 46 major US airports by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine found that aircraft noise was responsible for lower standardized test scores. Installing sound insulation in a subset of those schools reversed the effect.
• Noise has been associated with the development of dementia.
• Noise is an environmental stressor, diminishing environmental quality, damaging fragile ecosystems, and contributing to loss of biodiversity.
• All of these impacts come with substantial economic costs. Cardiovascular disease and stroke cost the nation $350 billion annually in direct medical costs and work productivity losses. While not all of these costs can be attributed to noise, lowering environmental noise just 5-decibels generates annual savings of $4 billion in medical costs by reducing the prevalence of hypertension and coronary artery disease.

In his testimony presented at the same Maryland legislative session referenced above, Daniel Fink MD, Board Chair of The Quiet Coalition, a program of Quiet Communities, Inc., explained,

"Generally, aircraft noise has direct involuntary physiological effects on stress hormones, heart rate, and blood pressure, and also causes sleep disturbance and interferes with activities and communication, causing annoyance, leading to an indirect stress response, causing vascular dysfunction. Both in turn cause cardiovascular disease and death. Multiple studies have confirmed these relationships.

"Nighttime aircraft noise has more serious adverse cardiovascular health effects than daytime noise. This appears to be related to the evolutionary role of hearing as necessary for survival, with noise indicating danger and causing a physiologic stress response, and also to sleep deprivation. In fact, nighttime aircraft noise exposure has been shown to trigger heart attacks. Furthermore, research shows that humans do not habituate to aircraft noise, especially at night. In fact, there seems to be a priming effect, whereby prior noise exposure amplifies the negative effects of noise on the lining of blood vessels (endothelial function)." (Pg. 6-7)