[ 90 ]
Environmental Management
and Health
10/2 [
1999
] 90–95
© MCB University Press
[
ISSN 0956-6163
]
Nuisance caused by aircraft noise in the vicinity of
Tehran International Airport
Khodabakshsh Karami
Health Faculty, Ahwaz University of Medical Sciences, Ahwaz, Iran
Stan Frost
Department of Environmental Resources, University of Salford, Salford, UK
Introduction
Annoyance is a common psychological
response to noise (Mclean and Tarnopolsky,
1977; Tarnopolsky et al., 1980) defined as:
feeling bothered by noise disturbance or
displeasure associated with any agent or
condition, conversation and rest interference
(WHO, 1980), fatigue or headache (Stansfeld et
al., 1985). Daily exposure to environmental
stressors can create annoyance and decreases
the quality of life for those who view it as
unnecessary and uncontrollable (Cohenet al.,
1986). Disturbance of sleep by noise is often
the underlying reason for noise annoyance
(Stream, 1980). Speech interference by noise
is also annoying (Mulholland and Attenbor-
ough, 1981), and communication interference
causes widespread annoyance (Loeb, 1986;
Smith, 1991). Residents around two airports
in Canada, Toronto (International) and
Oshawa (Municipal) (Taylor et al., 1981)
showed the percentage of people highly
annoyed was considerable for both airports.
In France, The Netherlands and the UK
80 per cent of people were annoyed at 55 NNI
(Vallet et al., 1988).
Interference with activities might be a
source of greater annoyance wherein success-
ful achievement of the activity is highly
valued by the subjects (Levy-Leboyer and
Moser, 1987). Annoyance is associated with
the noise level and type of activity. The con-
text is also important (Cheifetz and Borsky,
1980) and annoyance is a direct effect of noise
on conversation, mental concentration, rest
or recreation (WHO, 1980). The relationship
between aircraft noise (Gunn et al., 1981;
Moran et al., 1981; Vallet et al., 1988; Smith
and Stansfeld, 1986), train noise (Ahrlin and
Rylander, 1979; Clegg, 1979), traffic noise
(Karami and Frost, 1995; Langdon, 1976;
Rylander et al., 1976), industrial noise
(Ohrstrom and Bjorkman, 1978; Melamed et
al., 1988) and power lines noise (Lerner and
Lehrman, 1981) established a positive correla-
tion between noise and annoyance. A greater
percentage of people were highly annoyed by
aircraft noise as compared to road traffic
noise at the same noise level (Hall et al., 1981;
Rohrmann, 1978). Higher annoyance levels
were found for road traffic than for trains and
tramways when compared to aircraft noise
(Ahrlin and Rylander, 1979). In Hamburg
(Germany) people are more annoyed by air-
craft noise than other sources of urban noise.
Respondents believed that aircraft noise was
the most unpleasant type of environmental
noise, even if they did not live near an air-
port. The further rank order was street traf-
fic, factories, construction and railways
(Rohrmann, 1978). In the UK there have been
few complaints about railway noise, yet
sound levels generated along railways are
higher than levels from various other sources
which frequently give rise to widespread
complaints (Clegg, 1979). A social survey
(Fidell and Silvati, 1991) on the prevalence of
annoyance in Hartsfield International Air-
port (ATL) in Atlanta shows that aircraft noise
was the most disliked aspect of neighbourhood
life for residents of both acoustically treated
and untreated homes in all noise exposure
intervals.
Annoyance with aircraft noise has often
been associated with fear and the belief that
the noise could be prevented if adequate mea-
sures were taken (Field and Walker, 1982).
Respondents living directly underneath a
flight path are more annoyed than people
living outside the path (Gjestland, 1988). The
fear of crashes in the neighbourhood are an
important factor for generating annoyance
with aircraft noise (Gunn, 1987; Gunn et al.,
1981; Reijneveld, 1994).
Materials and methods
The questionnaire was based on earlier inves-
tigations (Diamond and Rice, 1987; Jue et al.,
1984; Mclean and Tarnopolsky, 1977;
Tarnopolsky and Morton-Williams, 1980)
with standard commonly used questions. The
Keywords
Air transport, Health, Iran, Noise,
Planning
Abstract
Noise measurement and social
questionnaire surveys in three
residential areas around
Mehrabad International Airport
(Tehran, Iran) were based upon
randomly selected dwellings in
each area. A total of 193 individu-
als responded and many are
annoyed and dissatisfied with
aircraft noise and in consequence
they would like to move. Aircraft
noise is the strongest negative
environmental factor affecting the
residents in the vicinity of
Mehrabad Airport and it could be
a hazard for their health.