Aircraft Noise Exposure and Health Effects in U.S. Population Studies

Speaker: Junette Peters, ScD
Organization: Associate Professor
Job Title: Boston University

Aircraft noise is an ongoing concern for communities surrounding airports. We leverage aircraft noise data for 90 United States (U.S.) airports over many years, generated using the Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT). We link this noise exposure data to demographic, lifestyle and health data collected about participants of U.S. long-term health studies to evaluate potential relationships between noise and health. This presentation provides an overview of our research and some results of the evaluation of the relationship between long-term aircraft noise exposure and health outcomes including body mass index, hypertension risk, cardiovascular disease risk and sleep.

  • Learning Objective 1: Summarize how noise exposure can affect cardiovascular health and hearing outcomes.
  • Learning Objective 2: Identify health effects related to aircraft noise exposure based on findings from U.S. cohort studies, with a focus on auditory and non-auditory impacts.
  • Learning Objective 3: Describe limitations of studies evaluating potential health effects related to aircraft noise exposure, particularly concerning their implications for audiology and hearing conservation.

About Junette

Dr. Junenette Peters is an Associate Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health. Her research focuses on the effects of environmental pollutants and stressors on unhealthy aging - cardiovascular disease and cognitive impairment. A key research area includes investigating the effects of aircraft noise exposure on cardiovascular and other health outcomes in multiple large national cohorts with funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Federal Aviation Administration. Dr. Peters received a Bachelors’ degree in Political Science from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Masters’ degrees from Boston University in Energy and Environmental Studies and in Geology, and a Doctorate degree in Environmental Health from Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
Financial Disclosures: Grants, U.S. Federal Aviation Administration; Consulting Fee HMMH;
Non-Financial Disclosures: None
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