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Too much noise

Air transport has an impact on communities that may be more significant than we appreciate. 

Aircraft noise is not merely irritating. It is damaging to health, wellbeing, learning and cognitive function. In Australia, communities are subjected to levels of aircraft noise well beyond WHO recommendations and have no legal protection against it. There are no limits to the loudness or number of noise incidents around Melbourne Airport at any time of the day or night — no caps, no curfew — and no compensation is available to residents who are affected by aircraft noise. 

The Third Runway Major Development Plan addresses noise issues in Part C – Airspace, specifically, Chapter C3: Aircraft Noise Modelling Methodology, and Chapter C4: Aircraft Noise and Vibration.

Objections

Noise effects

 • Aircraft noise is more annoying than traffic, railway or industrial noise, according to a recent study (1)

60% of people living near airports are annoyed by aircraft noise and more than half (52.8%) are at least moderately annoyed (3), according to the same study.

39% of homes with at least one resident seriously affected by noise — based on the average Australian household size — is considered ‘acceptable’ under the National Airport Safeguarding Framework, drawing on a survey conducted in 1980, but has anyone asked the residents whether they think it’s acceptable?

• Almost 100% of homes with at least one moderately affected resident would also be acceptable under these regulations.

These regulations allow buildings (including houses and workplaces) within a noise contour, even if 52% of residents are either moderately or seriously annoyed.

• Aircraft noise, more importantly, has serious health and educational effects.

It disrupts sleep, affects learning and cognitive function
It causes
> cognitive impairment of  comprehension, problem solving and memory
> higher impairment in children with language or retention disorders or learning in a second language
> high levels of stress
It impares
> reading ability and learning outcomes
> auditory discrimination and speech perception
It leads to poor attention levels
It increases
> absence from work
> the duration of hospital stays
> the risk of anxiety and depression
> and may increase the risk of diabetes and heart disease (1,2,3,4), and
It affects us more as we age

What is not clear is whether you must be consciously annoyed by the noise to suffer these known and suspected adverse effects. 

Noise limits

The World Health Organisation (WHO) advises that environmental noise outside the home should not exceed 40dB at night and 45dB during the day (2). In the Netherlands, aircraft noise cannot exceed 63.46dB. This is four times louder than the WHO recommends, but is still only half to a quarter as loud as many homes in Melbourne will experience. Each increase of 10dB is perceived as a doubling of loudness, so 60dB is twice as loud as 50dB. For context, countryside noise is roughly 25dB; a ticking clock is roughly 30dB; a quiet suburban street is roughly 40dB; snoring ranges between 42-66dB; conversation is roughly 60dB; a lawnmower is roughly 70dB.

• Only noise above 60dB, more than twice as loud as the WHO-recommended night time maximum of 40dB, are included in Melbourne Airport’s aircraft noise maps and forecasts

• No regulations exist relating directly to levels of aircraft noise

• No upper limit to the loudness or number of flights exist over homes and schools during the day or at night.

• All of the usual suburban noises as well as aircraft noise is experienced by those who live near airports.

Noise complaints are stonewalled. FOI documents reveal noise complaints recipient, Airservices Australia, stonewalls community members with legitimate complaints about aircraft noise. 

Brimbank City Council addresses the harmful impacts of aircraft noise in their thorough response to the draft M3R MDP.

Demands

A new study of community responses to aircraft noise in Australia is overdue. In Australia there has only been one study of community responses to aircraft noise, in 1980 (5). By comparison, in the UK there have been four studies, in 1961, 1967, 1980 and 2007. During that time, community tolerance of aircraft noise has decreased. What is clear is that these noise levels are not acceptable to people living near major roads, train lines, or industrial areas. There are however noise regulations for all these but not for aircraft noise.

• Independent studies of actual aircraft noise in residential areas around Australian airports are also needed, as our understanding of community tolerance of aircraft noise is likely outdated.

• A review of the methodology used to forecast aircraft noise is needed, as existing noise forecasting methodology may be inaccurate.

Delay submission of the Third Runway Major Development Plan (M3R MDP)  to the federal transport minister, until the findings of these studies and reviews have been presented for community scrutiny.

Also see what Brimbank City Council is asking for in response to the M3R MDP.

FOOTNOTES

1. T. Lindvall & E. P. Radford. Measurement of annoyance due to exposure to environmental factors (1973). Academic Press Inc.

2. World Health Organisation(WHO). Burden of disease from environmental noise (2011)

3. Manfred E. Beutel ,Claus Jünger, Eva M. Klein, Philipp Wild, Karl Lackner, Maria Blettner, Harald Binder, Matthias Michal, Jörg Wiltink, Elmar Brähler, Thomas Münzel. Noise Annoyance Is Associated with Depression and Anxiety in the General Population – The Contribution of Aircraft Noise

4. Mathias Basner, MD, PhD, MSc, Charlotte Clark, Anna Hansell, James I. Hileman, Sabine Janssen, Kevin Shepherd, and Victor Sparrow. Aviation Noise Impacts: State of the Science; Noise and Health, 2017 Mar-Apr; 19(87): 41–50.

5. Airservices Australia 

How much aircraft noise will there be?

Aircraft noise information can be found:

• on pages 261-301 of the 2022 Melbourne Airport Master Plan, and

• on the Melbourne Airport Noise Tool.

If you have trouble understanding this information you can ask questions of Melbourne Airport.

Register your aircraft noise experiences

The Explane app allows you to record and register your aircraft noise experiences.

It allows users to measure their decibels and gain a real picture of the noise nuisance experienced by residents living near airports. It gives residents, action groups, politicians and the press the data they need to convince politicians of the seriousness of this nuisance.

You can view the registered aviation noise reports, both yours and those gathered by other Australian citizen noise monitors, here:

FURTHER READING

What are an airport’s impacts (Aviation Environment Federation)

Aviation Noise Impact Management  (European Union’s Horizon, Springer)

Aircraft noise and human rights

FURTHER VIEWING

UECNA (European Union Against Aircraft Nuisances) Webinars

Webinar No 2 on Noise Monitoring

Webinar No 6 on Noise Metrics

Webinar No 7 on Can new aircraft be designed to cut emissions and noise?

Webinar No 12 on External cost of aircraft Noise

Quite Communities Webinar

Aviation noise, pollution and health

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