Auswirkungen von Fluglärm auf Schlaf und andere Schutzgüter : Eine Übersicht unter Berücksichtigung der NORAH-Studie

Abstract

Extrinsic effects on health and sleep are getting more and more attention. Studies have been conducted that aim to quantify annoyance due to increases in external noise increases and its physiological effects. Recent research on noise effects was performed in order to identify the causes and effects of these extrinsic influences. Research on aircraft and airfield noise near airports is of special interest because air traffic increases and airports expand. This noise has special characteristics compared to other forms of traffic noise. A large study near the Frankfurt airport with sub-studies near the Stuttgart and Cologne airports (NORAH study) could confirmed results from previous studies and even presented more precise results on some aspects. This study had a special focus on an excellent quantitative assessment of blood pressure and sleep by unattended home polysomnography according to AASM recommendations. Effects on blood pressure were not significant. Only trends were shown which were within the confidence intervals of previous studies. Related to the effects on sleep, a sound pressure exposure-response relationship could be shown for the objective wake-up probability. After the opening of a new landing runway and the introduction of night landing restrictions, wake-up probability decreased. Remarkably the study demonstrated that personal opinion on aircraft noise is a strong modifier for objective sleep quality. In our paper we compare the results of the NORAH study with results from previous studies with a focus on annoyance, blood pressure and sleep.