WeeklySA_AdminEFFECTS: Warnings that aircraft noise and emissions pose long-term health impact on Freedom Park informal settlement community perched near the facility’s runway…
By Nkosemntu Stuurman and WSAM Reporter
For the estimated 2 000 residents of Freedom Farm informal settlement, situated on the boundary of the Cape Town International Airport runway, the constant booming sound of airplanes taking off and landing is not only a constant irritation but also a health risk.
This warning has been issued by Professor Lebogang Ramma, the head of University of Cape Town’s health and rehabilitation sciences department, adding these communities faced long term health effects as a result of noise exposure.
This is in addition to other adverse impacts – uncovered by international research as recent as last year – warning that such exposure can contribute to respiratory symptoms, heart-rate issues, blood pressure problems and other long-term health effects.
Yet, these families – living as close as 500 metres from the airport runway on the northern boundary – have nowhere to go and some have been living there for up to 15 years. The clattering and clanging noise of corrugated metal sheets resulting from the constant air traffic is a daily reality and, unbeknown to many, a risk to their health.
“As an example, children who live in the environment that you have described above, generally have poorer academic outcomes when compared to other children who live in less noisy environments,” Prof Ramma said.
He adds that even if the socio-economic status of these residents could be changed, the residual effects of the noise exposure could remain a problem. Being exposed to loud noise over a long period of time is a major risk factor for hearing loss.
Several studies in the recent past, including last year, corroborate his warnings of health risks associated with living next to airports, including heart and breathing problems.
Results from studies conducted elsewhere also car the similar warnings:
• In The Netherlands, researchers last year found that children living near Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport used inhalers more and have increased asthma-related symptoms because of higher levels of air pollution.
• Last month, residents living near Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles complained that rising air traffic was worsening health problems linked to jet fuel fumes, noise, and lead exposure. A survey of 80 residents found that 65% believed Van Nuys Airport pollution caused or worsened their health conditions, including asthma and cancer.
• In the United Kingdom, researchers earlier this year found people who live near airports might be at greater risk of poor heart health. In the study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and The Independent (London), the researchers looked at heart imaging data from 3 635 people who lived near Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham or Manchester airports.
Exposure to noise could increase the likelihood of suffering heart attacks, according to the study, including life-threatening abnormal heart rhythms, and strokes.
In December 2013, the City of Cape and ACSA signed a memorandum of agreement to relocate three informal settlements, including Freedom Farm, built on the ACSA precinct through the Symphony Way housing project. The City of Cape Town recently relaunched the Symphony Way housing development project in Delft which is earmarked for the relocation of families living in Freedom Farm, Blikkiesdorp and Malawi Camp.
An unemployed young man who lives with his sister in Freedom Farm, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, says one can barely have a conversation on the phone when an airplane is flying overhead.
“I am currently a jobseeker. One of the companies I applied to had phoned me. When I picked up the phone, I couldn’t hear a word from the person I was speaking to,” he says. Luckily the company called back a few minutes later.
He moved to Freedom Farm only recently. His sister has been living here for over three years and complains about the sleepless nights she endures. But her children, aged two and three, were born here and seem to be getting used to the noise.
Noluvo Joni (40), originally from Ntabankulu in the Eastern Cape, joined this community in 2023. During her first week at Freedom Farm, she barely slept a wink. But now she says she was disturbed by the noise only once at night, though she feared for her hearing.
“I hope the housing project currently underway in Delft can be finished within the specified timeframe so that we can be relocated from this noisy environment,” she says,
Many community members that Health-e News interacted with were not aware of the long-term adverse effects associated with high noise exposure.
Asked about how her daily life is impacted by the airplane noise, the community leader Zoliswa Zwelidala, who has been living in this community for more than 15 years, says, “I have been exposed to this noise all these years and I have no choice. Sleeping a few hours has become a norm to me. I guess this has had an adverse impact on my health which I’m not aware of”.
Ramma says the Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA) could have put measures to mitigate the effects of noise pollution on the people living close to the airport.
“They know the harmful effects of aircraft noise on people, especially children,” he concludes.
Meanwhile the UK study found other less obvious effects of prolonged noise exposure include stress-related conditions such as hypertension and mental ill health, according to The Independent report.
The hearts of those who lived in areas with higher aircraft noise were compared with those of people in lower aircraft noise areas. And, those living in higher noise areas had stiffer and thicker heart muscles that contracted and expanded less easily and were less efficient at pumping blood around the body.
This was especially the case for those exposed to higher aircraft noise at night, which researchers believe may be because of impaired sleep and people being more likely to be at home at night and therefore exposed to the noise.
Dr Gaby Captur, senior researcher of the UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science and consultant cardiologist at the Royal Free Hospital, London, said: “Our study is observational, so we cannot say with certainty that high levels of aircraft noise caused these differences in heart structure and function.
“However, our findings add to a growing body of evidence that aircraft noise can adversely affect heart health and our health more generally”.
Previous studies linked exposure to high levels of aircraft noise to higher blood pressure and obesity. – Health e news, additional reporting by The Independent, Weekly SA Mirror and EHN
FACT FILE
A report by Europe-based T & E released in June last year also warned of adverse aviation’s health effects on populations near airports. The entity added that aviation emissions were a climate concern, and also had a serious impact on air quality.
Yet, added the report, this issue had not received much attention from regulators or the aviation industry.
“When jet fuel is burnt, it releases particulate matter (PM) of different sizes, including ultrafine particles (UFPs), tiny particles below the size of 100 nanometre in diameter – approximately 1 000 times smaller than a human hair. Despite growing evidence that UFP exposure can contribute to respiratory symptoms, heart rate variability, blood pressure problems and long-term effects on mortality1, this pollutant remains largely under-researched and unregulated”.
The T & E study provided a first estimate of the health effects caused by aviation-related UFPs in Europe, by summarising the available scientific evidence, and extrapolating data from the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport area to the main European airports. The analysis estimated that a total of 280 000 cases of high blood pressure, 330 000 cases of diabetes, and 18 000 cases of dementia may be linked to UFP emissions among the 51,5 million people living around the 32 busiest airports in Europe.
