Share:

Hold the FAA accountable for airplane noise

The FAA is pushing changes without accountability at the expense of America's health

While airplanes used to mostly fly over unpopulated areas, new satelite-based technologies are allowing airplanes to fly closer together and over wider swaths of our cities. This has resulted in a huge increase in aircraft noise and air pollution in many of our neighborhoods. This noise keeps our children from studying for school. It also makes them tired in school, affecting their grades and graduation rates. Noise and sleeplessness are also stressful for adults, and increase the risk of death from heart disease. These health effect are exacerbated by increases in air pollution for higher plane traffic over populated areas. Property price declines have also been linked to airplane noise.



The FAA spends a tremendous amount of money regulating the safety of passengers in the sky, but seems to promote unhealthy policies for those on the ground without proper review. One new technology?Nextgen?is, remarkably, both responsible for recent increases in airplane noise and is exempt from environmental review. Moreover, noise standards in the US are much more lenient than in other developed countries. We ask for an environmental impact assessment when Nextgen flight patterns are implemented. We ask for the reinstatement of the Environmental Protection Agency's regulation of noise pollution, which was suspended in the early 1980s. We also ask for a better balance between airline regulations for passengers in the air and those on the ground. One should not have to die for the sake of the other. Our health and the future of our children depend upon it.