Photo credit: Cameron Casey from Pexels
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
Loud noise may be an indicator of crime–a domestic dispute, a physical altercation, or drug dealing, as discussed by The Quiet Coalition’s Arline Bronzaft, PhD–but a new paper provides startling evidence that noise, in this case aircraft noise, may cause violent crime.
Prof. Timo Hener at Aarhus University in Denmark studied crime under aircraft flight paths in Frankfurt, Germany. Frankfurt’s airport has a unique situation. Aircraft usually land and take off into the wind, to add additional lift. The wind in Frankfurt is usually from one direction, about 75% of the time, but when it shifts, aircraft land and take off in the opposite direction. Prof. Hener studied crime rates in areas under the flight paths. After adjusting for a number of factors, he found that a 1 decibel increase in aircraft noise caused aa 2.6% increase in assaults, usually on males by persons unknown to them.
It would be impossible to order the airport to shift flight paths and then study crime rates below the flight paths when this is done, but the changing wind directions allow an “experiment of nature” where the weather pattern provides the experimental intervention, and all the researcher has to do is collect the data.
The study needs editorial review by experts in the field and confirmation by other studies, but it is a fascinating study about possible additional adverse impacts of noise on human health and behavior.
