7. Topic B6 (part): Topic: ‘Managing the effects of expansion’. Sub-topic: ‘Health’.
Guidance:
Noise pollution: In the House of Commons brief in March 18, it stated that Noise pollution as a result of the Heathrow expansion alone is estimated to affect an additional 92,700 people with noise at 54db LAeq, 16 hours a day in 2030 https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmtrans/548/548.pdf page.21. This is a complete understatement as this is an estimate for the impact of the concentrated flight path approach only. In reality, it will be vastly greater proportion of the London population whose health and well-being will be directly impacted affected if Heathrow was allowed to proceed with the dispersed flight paths.
Noise above 45 decibels is associated with raised blood pressure, cardio-vascular disease and stress. The impact of the Heathrow proposal will in addition to having huge adverse impact on the physical and mental health of the London population also hugely impact the burden of the NHS and add significant cost to the NHS bill to be covered by UK tax payers.
Protecting communities from aviation noise should always take priority over Heathrow Airport Ltd.’s commercial interests.
Air quality: The proposed Heathrow expansion is expected to adversely affect the air quality and expose 121,377 of the London population to increased NO2 concentrations. This is again complete understatement as this is an estimate for the impact of the concentrated flight path approach only. In reality, it will be vastly greater proportion of the London population whose health and well-being will be directly impacted than the stated number of people affected if Heathrow was allowed to proceed with the dispersed flight paths.
A study shows 16,000 premature deaths per year globally due to long-term exposure to aviation-attributable PM2.5 and O3 lead to costs of $21 bn per year* which includes the significant impact of crusing emissions as well as Landing and Take Off (LTO) emissions. In the UK alone airport emissions was reported to cause 110 early death to occur each year and could increase to approximately 250 in 2030** . This is in addition to the people falling suffering physical and mental health issues.
The increase in road transport to and from the airport including transport of cargo will adversely impact air quality and the health and well-being of colleagues, neighbours and the wider population further
* https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/10/3/034001/meta
** https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316358552_Aircraft_LTO_emissions_regulations_and_implementations_at_European_airports
Link to question: https://aec.heathrowconsultation.com/topics/health/ (sample answer on page 12)
Back to Start Page 6 Page 8