Aircraft Noise Expert Spoke on Health Risks to Port of Oakland Board.
10/10/24, Aircraft noise public health expert and community members alerted the Port of Oakland Board of Commissioners to the serious health risks posed by aircraft noise and point out that the proposed OAK airport expansion will certainly exacerbate those risks to communities adjacent to the airport and those living underneath the OAK airport departure and arrival flight paths. The experts described how the increase in flight operations and the planned expanded nighttime hours of operations will put the public at serious risk of negative health effects. Community members described the detrimental aircraft noise impact to those underneath the OAK airport flight paths.
According to Daniel Fink, MD, a board-certified internist who is recognized nationally and internationally as an expert on the effects of noise on the public: “transportation noise is the second worst environmental stressor affecting human health, exceeded only by air pollution.1 Aircraft noise disrupts human activities, impairs learning, disturbs sleep, and causes increased cardiovascular disease and death among those exposed to it”2,3. Poor and minority populations are disproportionately impacted by these adverse health effects.
“Transportation noise is a health problem for individuals and a public health problem for exposed populations. Much has been learned about these health effects from studies of how railway noise, road traffic noise, and aircraft noise affect humans. The adverse impacts appear to be similar for all types of transportation noise, but aircraft noise is particularly annoying to humans. (See Figure 1) The effects of air pollution and noise pollution are additive, but the individual effects of each type of pollution can be teased out by sophisticated epidemiologic and statistical techniques”. The Oakland Port Board of Commissioners heard testimony regarding these facts.
On July 17, 2023, the Port of Oakland released a Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) on the Oakland International Airport Terminal Modernization and Development Project, which details plans to modernize the existing terminals at the Oakland International Airport. The project also includes building a third terminal with 16 additional gates. This expansion plan was proposed to meet projected increases in air travel through OAK and to reap the benefits of any increase in associated commerce.
According to the DEIR total OAK aircraft operations are proposed to increase by 74% (from 516/day in 2021 to 898/day in 2038), nighttime operations are to be extended with departures as early as 4:15 am and arrivals as late as 2:00 am, and the use of wide-bodied aircraft is projected to increase by 48% (from 16,816 in 2021 to 24,954 in 2038 for commercial and freight operations combined)6 – all of which will contribute to a significant increase in aircraft noise for communities adjacent to the airport and those underneath the flight paths.
Local environmentalist and climate justice groups have repeatedly pointed out flaws in the DEIR, including inflated future flight projections, no mention of community health impacts, limited mention of aircraft noise impacts and no inclusion of studies quantifying the increase of greenhouse gas associated with an increase in flights.
Compounding the highly unhealthy environment caused by air travel is the fact that just 1% of flyers account for 50% of all aviation emissions. These are mostly frequent fliers taking unnecessary, recreational trips7. Everything we do to make airplane travel more convenient, or cheaper, or more attractive - as the OAK expansion is trying to do - will have an extremely destructive impact on our climate and our lives.
AIRCRAFT NOISE IS A PUBLIC HEALTH PROBLEM, NOT JUST AN ANNOYANCE:
Alternatives exist! The full Environmental Impact Report for California High Speed Rail was recently approved for the entire length of the line, and other options for more environmentally responsible travel within California and across the country are in development8. In addition, the COVID pandemic reinforced the efficiency of online video calls versus traditional face-to-face business meetings. The volume of air travel in and out of OAK has dropped as a result9, even after the pandemic has eased. There is very little justification for expanding OAK at this time.