Abstract
Accurate exposure assessment is essential in environmental epidemiological studies. This is especially true for aircraft noise, which is characterized by a high spatial and temporal variation. We propose a method to assess individual aircraft noise exposure for a case-crossover study investigating the acute effects of aircraft noise on cardiovascular deaths. We identified all cases of cardiovascular death (24,886) occurring near Zürich airport, Switzerland, over fifteen years from the Swiss National Cohort. Outdoor noise exposure at the home address was calculated for the night preceding death and control nights using flight operations information from Zürich airport and noise footprints calculated for major aircraft types and air routes. We estimated three different noise metrics: mean sound pressure level (LAeq), maximum sound pressure level (LAmax), and number above threshold 55 dB (NAT55) for different nighttime windows. Average nighttime aircraft noise levels were 45.2 dB, 64.6 dB, and 18.5 for LAeq, LAmax, and NAT55 respectively. In this paper, we present a method to estimate individual aircraft noise exposure with high spatio-temporal resolution and a flexible choice of exposure events and metrics. This exposure assessment will be used in a case-crossover study investigating the acute effects of noise on health.
Highlights
Noise from road, railway and air traffic is one of the most widespread sources of environmental stress and discomfort in everyday life [1,2]
The aim of this paper is to describe a methodology to calculate individual aircraft noise exposures for various time windows, required to conduct a case-crossover study investing effects of aircraft noise on myocardial infarction, stroke and other ischemic cardiovascular causes of mortality, in the framework of the TraNQuIL
The above-described process resulted in the creation of a database listing individual aircraft noise exposure metrics (LAeq, LAmax, and number above threshold 55 dB (NAT55) ) for each case and control event and time window of interest
Summary
Noise from road, railway and air traffic is one of the most widespread sources of environmental stress and discomfort in everyday life [1,2]. The Swiss Government recently established a national plan aiming to limit noise at source to promote population health, especially in the urban environment [3]. Noise Abatement Ordinance of 1986 defines exposure limits for traffic noise and other technical noise sources. It limits permissible emissions at the source and contains building restrictions for areas exceeding the noise limits [4]. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released new guidelines recommending that the average nighttime exposure to aircraft noise should stay below
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