By Philip Newman
Anti-noise activists have long contended that aircraft noise has an adverse effect on schoolchildren near Queens airports and a survey of young students near Munich’s airport supports that claim.
Gary W. Evans of Cornell University and colleagues conducted a survey of schoolchildren at the old Munich airport and the new airport and found that after the move children tested better near the closed airport and worse near the new, functioning one.
The survey examined the reading, memory, attention and speech perception of 325 children before and after the opening of the new airport and closing of the old airport.
The children, 8 to 12 years old who live near the airport sites, were monitored six months before the airport switch and six months later followed by 18 months afterward.
“After the switch, long-term memory and reading were impaired in the noise group at the new airport and improved in the formerly noise-exposed group at the old airport,” said the report on the survey published in the journal Psychological Science.
“Short-term memory also improved in the latter group after the old airport was closed. At the new airport speech perception was impaired in the newly noise-exposed group.”
Evans, who was assisted in the study by Staffan Hygge and Monike Bullinger, said the findings suggest aircraft noise interferes with speech perception and may cause delays in the acquisition of language.
Evans said analyses of the Munich children showed chronic airport noise boosts levels of stress hormones in children and can adversely affect their psychological well-being.
Queens aircraft anti-noise activists’ reaction amounted to: “It's what we’ve been saying for years.”
Dr. Alan Greene of Sane Aviation for Everyone, or SANE, an anti-noise organization, said he escorted an academic from Columbia University to several Queens schools in a survey on aircraft noise and schools.
“At each school, the principal said there was absolutely no problem,” Greene said. “But the students told us everything in the classroom had to stop until each airplane was far enough away so anyone could hear.”
Jerome Goodman, an engineer and sound expert for SANE, said at least one extensive study on the detrimental effects of sound not only of aircraft but of elevated trains was published more than 25 years ago. But he said the Federal Aviation Administration denies that airport noise is a detriment to learning.
He said another such student survey on the environment around LaGuardia Airport was recently completed and is to be released soon.
“Western Queens is an acoustical hellhole,” he said.
Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 136.
