Christopher J Roof

Understanding Airport Air Quality and Public Health Studies Related to Airports

This report provides airport industry stakeholders with an overview of what is known and not known regarding the impact of airport activity on air quality and public health. The report begins with a review of air quality standards and regulations. It then focuses on airport air quality issues, including source characteristics and emissions contributions, airport operations, geography, meteorology, mitigation measures, airport emissions and dispersion modeling, air quality measurement capabilities, and aircraft landing/takeoff emissions impacts vs. impacts at cruising altitude. The report then provides an overview of air quality health impacts and risk, followed by a discussion of the industry’s current understanding of airport air quality health impacts. The report concludes with recommendations for future research. Key features of the report include a summary of findings in the form of frequently asked questions and an extensive table summarizing the literature review.

Aviation Noise and Cardiovascular Health in the United States: a Review of the Evidence and Recommendations for Research Direction

Purpose of the ReviewIn the USA, there is mounting pressure on aviation operators and regulators to address concerns about community impacts of aircraft noise given increasing evidence of adverse health impacts, continuing community complaints, availability of cost-effective programs to reduce exposures to aircraft noise, and more stringent international policies. In the USA, regulation of civil aviation noise is the responsibility of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which requires a “significant body of scientific support,” particularly applicable to the USA, to inform health-based policy and regulatory decisions. However, there have been very few studies investigating the relationship between noise and health in the USA and limited studies across the globe characterizing the effects of aviation noise specifically on cardiovascular health. This review focuses on recent findings on the relationship between aircraft noise and cardiovascular outcomes and directions for future research.Recent FindingsEpidemiological studies generally report statistically significant associations between aircraft noise and adverse cardiovascular outcomes, although with limited evidence within the USA. Sleep disturbance, associated with nighttime noise, has been shown to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease given associations with inflammatory markers and metabolic changes. Given numerous cardiovascular markers, the most appropriate choices depend on the ultimate objectives of the individual studies.SummaryGiven the state of the literature, future research should leverage emerging tools to estimate aviation, railway, and road traffic noise and apply noise estimates to a range of epidemiological study designs and endpoints to inform causal interpretation and help determine potential intervention strategies.

New methods for measuring and correlating transportation noise frequencies with ultrafine particulate emissions under varying meteorological conditions to inform environmental health studies

Transportation-derived particulate matter and chronic noise exposure frequently occur concomitantly in urban areas. Noise is an important confounder to be evaluated in epidemiological studies, yet few public health studies have included both air pollution and noise in health effects models due to difficulty in demonstrating epidemiologic causal mechanisms and confounding factors in noise and air pollution sampling and analytical methodologies. This study will present a framework for the development of a traffic-noise frequency and particulate emissions correlation model based on frequency-domain analysis of vehicle noise measurements, compared with particulate measurements sampled concurrently at two Greater Boston urban neighborhoods under varying meteorological conditions. The research will present new methods for evaluating bi-seasonal measurement of both transportation noise and associated particulate emissions, with emphasis on Ultrafine Particulates (UFP, <100 nm diameter) from diesel exhausts. The ...

Correlating transportation noise frequencies with ultrafine particulate emissions by source: Implications for environmental health studies

Transportation-derived particulate matter and chronic ambient noise exposure frequently occur concomitantly in urban areas, adversely impacting population health outcomes. Noise is identified as an important confounder in epidemiological studies, yet few health studies have included both air pollution and noise in health effects models. Several noise exposure studies have associated intensity and duration of transportation noise with chronic health effects; comparatively few studies have assessed airborne particulate concentrations with co-exposure to transportation noise of specific frequency. This study will present methodologies for the measurement, visualization and analysis of traffic-noise frequency and particulate emissions developed through concurrent sampling at two Greater Boston locations under varying meteorological conditions. We present methods for evaluating co-located measurement of both transportation noise and associated particulate emissions, with emphasis placed on Ultrafine Particulat...