Effects of jet noise on mortality rates.

Two areas, containing a total of over 160,000 people, were examined for mortality rates; one area was directly under incoming flights, near Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The other was removed from the LAX flight patterns so that jet noise was not dominant. The two areas were chosen so that they were as nearly alike as possible in age, racial distribution, income and in other relevant factors with the sole major difference of jet noise in one of them. It was found that there was a substantial increase in mortality rates in the area under the jets where there was large noise radiation. In particular, by a most conservative statistical treatment there was in the jet noise area: a 15% increase in deaths due to strokes (cerebro-vascular disease) which accounted for 39 deaths in the two-year period of the study--presumably attributable to the excessive jet noise. Further, in the noise-radiated area there was a 100% increase in deaths due to cirrhosis of the liver (primarily attributed to alcoholism)--amounting to 24 extra deaths in the two years, due to jet noise. One of the disturbing side results of this study was that in these relatively poor regions it appears that there should be about 50% more deaths than were reported and recorded by Los Angeles County. These losses were perhaps due to a concentration of bad, given addresses in the areas in question; this serious loss casts grave doubt on previous studies of eath rates for minority peoples (e.g. blacks), suggesting that the rates may be considerably higher than those previously reported.