Proposed relaxation of limits on night-time flights at Dublin Airport poses ‘significant hazard to human health’
There have been several studies, in recent years, confirming that aircraft noise at night can have negative health impacts, especially on cardiovascular health. For good health, adults need at least 7 hours of good sleep each night – that requires a period that long without plane noise overhead. Now the Irish Government proposes to allow relaxation of limits on night-time flights at Dublin Airport. This would pose “a significant hazard to human health” for people living in the area. Currently there is a ban on planes using Dublin’s new north runway between 11pm and 7am, but the intention is to reduce this to midnight to 7am. ie. from 8 hours to 6 hours without noise. The proposal is also to increase the number of flights overall from 65 per night, between 11p. and 7am, and replace this number with a noise quota scheme, based on the theoretical noise level of planes. All this would increase the level of noise at night, and prevent people living near the airport or under flight paths from getting good quality sleep – with a high probability of negatively impacting their health and well-being.
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Proposed relaxation of limits on night-time flights at Dublin Airport poses ‘significant hazard to human health’, says Irish Minister
March 13 2022
Independent.ie
A Government minister says a proposed relaxation of limits on night-time flights at Dublin Airport poses “a significant hazard to human health” for people living in the area.
The Minister of State for Community Development and Charities, Joe O’Brien, has raised objections to recommendations by the Aircraft Noise Competent Authority to reduce the current ban on aircraft using the airport’s North Runway by two hours from the existing one of 11pm-7am to midnight-6am.
It follows an application by DAA, the operator of Dublin Airport, to amend conditions attached to planning permission for a new runway which imposed restrictions on night-time flying.
A draft regulation by the ANCA has also proposed removing the existing condition which restricts the average number of aircraft movements at Dublin Airport per night between 11pm and 7am to 65 flights and replacing it with a noise quota scheme.
However, Mr O’Brien said reducing the limit on night-time flights to just six hours would still prevent affected residents from having adequate unbroken sleep given the recommendations by the World Health Organisation that a minimum of eight hours sleep is required to maintain reasonable physical and mental health.
The Green Party TD, whose Dublin Fingal constituency includes Dublin Airport, pointed out that WHO guidelines also strongly recommend that night noise levels should not exceed 40 decibels – a level considerably below the noise generated by aircraft taking off.
“Research in this area indicates that night-time aircraft noise has a statistically significant impact on excess risk of hypertension, coronary artery disease and acute cardiovascular mortality,” said Mr O’Brien.
He claimed aircraft noise at night-time also had negative effects on people’s well-being, particularly among elderly people and children.
“In light of the increasing body of scientific evidence demonstrating the deleterious effects of night-time aircraft noise on human health, it is wholly inappropriate to prioritise the potential economic benefits of expanded flight hours ahead of the wellbeing of people,” said Mr O’Brien.
In a submission to the ANCA, the Minister said the economic benefits of reduced ill-health, mortality and disability should also be considered when assessing the cost effectiveness of reducing the limits on night-time flights.
Mr O’Brien also claimed increased flights were unnecessary and should be “actively avoided” given the Government’s national climate action objectives and the imperative need to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Over 1,300 submissions have been made to the ANCA about its proposed changes to limits on night-time operations at Dublin Airport as part of a public consultation.
A large majority of submissions are objections to any easing of existing restrictions from residents living in the vicinity of the airport and on flight paths.
However, Aer Lingus claims restrictions on the use of the North Runway will have negative consequences for other industries and international and domestic supply chains “harming both employment and the economy.”
Ryanair claimed the proposed noise quota scheme would damage the competitiveness of Dublin Airport and said it could be a factor in where it bases its aircraft in future.
The proposed changes have been supported by IBEC, Chambers Ireland, the Irish Exporters Association and Enterprise Ireland as well as the Irish Aviation Authority.
Leading express delivery multinational, DHL, has called for cargo flight operators to be excluded from plans to significantly decrease aircraft noise levels at Dublin Airport from 2030 onwards because of its potential to have a negative impact on freight services.
The ANCA has also proposed a voluntary sound insulation scheme for all residences that would be exposed to aircraft noise above 55 decibels.
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See earlier:
Dublin Airport wants permission to amend planning conditions for more night period flights
Dublin airport is constructing a new runway, which is expected to open in 2022. It had been intended to open in 2020. The current conditions would limit the use of the new northern runway between 11pm and 7am, and also place an overall limit of 65 aircraft movements across the entire airport during those hours. Now the Dublin Airport operator, DAA, has submitted an application to Fingal County Council for permission to amend two planning conditions that are due to apply to the operation of the new north runway and the overall runway system at Dublin Airport when the new north runway begins operations. It says the conditions are too “onerous” now wants to be able to operate a noise quota system between 11.30pm and 6am, ie. half an hour later into the night, and an hour earlier in the morning. Flights would operate for longer times than the quota period. The DAA says the new north runway would only be used between 6am and midnight, (ie. 2 hours longer than the 7am to 11pm originally) and it says the overall effects of nighttime aircraft noise are “less than envisaged under the planning permission granted in 2007, and do not exceed those in 2018.” The DAA is very keen to have flights between 6am and 7am, which is their “busiest time of the day.”
See also:
Science for Environment Policy.
Aircraft noise at night can result in dysfunction of blood vessels and cause long-term cardiovascular disease.
January 2015 (by the European Commission)
Recent research into the impact of different levels of noise on 75 volunteers
reveals that disturbed sleep caused by night-time aircraft noise can damage blood
vessels and increase the levels of stress hormones. As these physical changes are
potential pathways to high blood pressure, heart and circulatory disease over the
long term, reducing night-time aircraft noise is important for preventing
cardiovascular disease in people living near airports.
Aircraft noise tends to be more annoying and disruptive to sleep than road and rail traffic noise, and long-term night-time exposure to aircraft noise is implicated in cardiovascular disease (such as heart attacks and strokes) more than day-time exposure to aircraft noise.
People need sleep to maintain normal good health and this depends not only on the length of a night’s sleep but also its quality. Repeated noise disturbances, with or without waking up, interrupt the restorative powers of sleep, and cause a person’s blood pressure to fluctuate in response to the noise.
In this study, the researchers tested the impact of night-time aircraft noise on 75 healthy volunteers aged between 20 and 60 years. All the participants were exposed to recordings of different patterns of aircraft noise in their own homes. On one night the volunteers were exposed to background noise, as a control, and on the other two nights they were exposed to repeated aircraft noise either 30 or 60 times during the night. Volunteers kept to their normal sleep patterns and on the nights of exposure to aircraft noise, the noise event sequence lasted for 415 minutes. The researchers monitored the blood pressure and heart rate of the volunteers during the night.
The following morning, the volunteers visited a laboratory where the researchers used ultrasound to measure changes to the diameter of the main artery in the arm, which affects bloodflow. The results revealed that the arteries were stiffer (also called endothelial dysfunction) after an aircraft noise night, and the more severe the noise, the less flexible the blood vessels became. This suggests that the blood vessels were affected by poor sleep as a result of the aircraft noise.
In those volunteers who were first exposed to 30 episodes of aircraft noise, the effect on their arteries became worse (the arteries became less flexible) when they were then exposed to 60 noise episodes during the night. Thus, the vessel does not adapt to noise, but becomes more sensitive. Moreover, blood pressure increased in response to the aircraft noise.
The researchers also tested the volunteers’ blood for stress (fight-or-flight) hormones, and found there was a significant increase in adrenaline levels after exposure to nights where the volunteers were exposed to the aircraft noise. Volunteers also reported poor sleep quality on the noise nights. Over a long period of time, this repeated exposure to aircraft noise can result in permanently high blood pressure due to more rigid blood vessels, potentially leading to cardiovascular disease.
In further tests, five volunteers, who had been exposed to a 60-event aircraft noise night, were given Vitamin C in the laboratory. The researchers detected an improvement in arterial flexibility. Vitamin C is a powerful anti-oxidant, and the researchers suggest the mechanism by which the arteries become less flexible is related to oxidative stress of the blood vessels as a result of exposure to the aircraft noise.
Taken together, the observed stiffening of the arteries (even in young healthy adults), and the increase in adrenaline levels, combined with volunteers’ reported poor sleep quality, indicate that their raised blood pressure was most likely related to the aircraft noise at night, suggest the researchers. As this can lead to cardiovascular disease, night-time aircraft noise may be considered as a new risk factor. Reducing noise from aircraft at night would help prevent heart and circulatory problems in people living near airports.
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See also
Aircraft noise and public health the evidence is loud and clear
By Hacan and the AET (Aviation Environment Trust) for the AEF
January 2016
This says (for the UK):
“Over one million people live in areas where aircraft noise over a 24 hour period is above levels recommended for health, while close to 600,000 people live in areas where night-time noise is above 48 dBA Lnight, far above WHO recommended levels. Aviation policy needs to be updated to take health impacts into account, and where the health impacts of aircraft noise are unacceptable, airspace or airport capacity changes should only be permitted if they contribute to reducing this impact.”
See the full report at
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Studies show that at least 7 hours of sleep are needed, each night, by adults
Living under a flight path, along which aircraft fly at below – say 7,000 feet – is noisy. It is all the more noisy now that the aviation industry is introducing narrow, concentrated flight paths. These are replacing the older more dispersed routes, as aircraft have new “PBN” technology (like car satnav) and can fly far more accurately than in the past. And it suits the air traffic controllers to keep flight paths narrow. But if airports allow flights at night, or if the “night” period when flights are not allowed is short, this has consequences for people living near, or under, routes. Studies carried out scientifically show adults need at least 7 hours of sleep, each night to be at their healthiest. Children and teenagers need more.There are some people who need more than 7 hours per night, and some need less. It is not good enough to get less one night, and more the next – the brain does not process the day’s memories adequately. Studies show adverse effects of not getting enough sleep, which are not only related to concentration, speed of thinking or reacting etc, but also medical effects. The concentrated flight paths, and airports allowed to have flights all night, are causing very real problems. A study into noise and sleep by the CAA in 2009 looked at the issue, and said a large and comprehensive study is needed, but it is “likely to be expensive.”
Sleep deprivation causes adverse effects on health due to disruption of gene activity
Sleep scientists at the University of Surrey have found that sleep deprivation affects hundreds of genes involved with inflammation, immunity and cells’ response to stress. This might help explain why some people who do not get enough sleep have an increased risk for obesity, heart disease and cognitive impairment. Researchers took whole-blood RNA samples from 26 participants after they had spent a week sleeping 8.5 hours a night, and the same participants after a week of sleeping for just 5.7 hours. That amount of sleep is not unusual for many people, and an estimate from the USA is that perhaps 30% of American adults sleep for under 6 hours. (The study did not look at sleep disturbance, as is the case for aircraft noise). The study found genes related to circadian rhythms, metabolism, inflammation, immune response and stress were all affected by the experiment. Some were more active, and some less, during sleep deprivation. Other studies have found lack of sleep increases the risk of obesity and type II diabetes. It can affect blood sugar levels, and hormones that control appetite. There are also effects on hypertension, elevated risk of stroke and of heart disease.
https://www.airportwatch.org.uk/2013/03/leeds-bradford-airport-bidder-set-for-take-off/
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