Toulouse: when airborne noise, denounced by caregivers, becomes a public health problem
The noise of planes day and night among residents of airports is the subject of a forum signed by a hundred caregivers in France. Toulouse Blagnac airport is on the front line.
Airborne noise, especially at night, a public health problem? In any case, this is what the hundred health professionals seem to say who, on December 14, signed a long column in the newspaper Le Monde to warn of the consequences of airborne noise on populations living near airports in France. and assuring that “it is life expectancy that is threatened”.
Among the signatory caregivers, a Toulouse cardiologist (CHURangueil) Alexandre Duparc affirms that “stress related to aircraft noise has increased the mortality rate by 18%” in people with cardiovascular disease (see opposite).
The practitioner is based on a Danish study, because no similar survey exists in France. For health professionals, the accelerated economy of air traffic should not affect the health of the inhabitants. They say it in the preamble of their platform.
“Our cities live drowned in an environment of decibels: everywhere, projects to extend airports, railways and roads expose the French to ever-increasing noise pollution, denounce the caregivers. According to the Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe), 25 million metropolitan residents experience noise pollution from road and air transport, of which 9 million are overexposed to noise”.
“The Paris region does not have the exclusivity of noise pollution linked to aviation: the “Débats” study also covers the airports of Lyon and Toulouse. For the latter, the population exposed to nocturnal noise of more than 50 decibels increased by 70% between 2012 and 2017. More than 14,000 people are concerned. Due to the absence of a curfew, requested in vain by the associations, approximately 8,000 planes per year fly over a hospital at night at low altitude, without this seeming to pose any ethical problem for the airport authorities, the directorate general of civil aviation and a municipal majority. Everywhere, public health comes after financial interests.”
14,000 residents concerned in Toulouse
They are tens of thousands in Toulouse and around to live under the air corridor, which through many active collectives regularly denounce the nuisances of Toulouse Blagnac airport (ATB) which authorize night flights.
First and foremost, the Collective against air pollution in the Toulouse conurbation (CCNAAT) and, very recently, the “Pas d’avions à l’Hôpital Purpan” collective, which stepped up to the plate to remind us that the thresholds had been crossed in the CHU Purpan sector.
In support, the latest statements from the organization BruitParif, which measure the extent of noise using six sensors distributed along ATB’s air corridor, are overwhelming: “Despite reduced traffic, noise levels annual average noise related to air traffic was higher than 45 decibels (dB) recommended by the World Health Organization (MS) on all the measurement sites. And even higher than 40 dB(A) at night”. When the planes took off, the regulatory threshold of 55 dB would have been crossed, according to the hospital sensor.
“It’s a permanent fatigue”
“It is a permanent fatigue for people, like me, who live near the Purpan hospital, when it starts we no longer hear each other speak, explains Catherine Stolbowsky Abile-Gal, spokesperson for “Pas d’avions at Purpan Hospital. It’s not like before with 130 volumes a day, but living that generated stress hormones. People cannot even rest at night.”
For its part, ATB “will not speak, the airport being a consultant within the framework of the territory workshops launched by the prefecture”, assures the press service.
A prefectural plan to reduce nuisance
The Environmental Noise Prevention Plan (PPBE), piloted by the Haute-Garonne prefecture, must end in 2023 and the authorities must agree on a new PPBE. For the moment, no balance sheet, assures the prefecture. On February 24, it confirmed that it had set up “three ad hoc working groups” which met at the end of 2021. “These working groups are informal bodies which met, in a consultation process, the three colleges of members of the advisory committee on the environment (aeronautical professions, elected representatives and associations). The work focused on the three themes of reduction at source of noise pollution linked to air traffic, land use planning and management and operational procedures for noise reduction”, indicated for the time being the services of the ‘State.