Aircraft noise and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality near Heathrow Airport: A case-crossover study

Aircraft noise causes annoyance and sleep disturbance and there is some evidence of associations between long-term exposures and cardiovascular disease (CVD). We investigated short-term associations between previous day aircraft noise and cardiovascular events in a population of 6.3 million residing near Heathrow Airport using a case-crossover design and exposure data for different times of day and night. We included all recorded hospitalisations (n = 442,442) and deaths (n = 49,443) in 2014–2018 due to CVD. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate the ORs and adjusted for NO2 concentration, temperature, and holidays. We estimated an increase in risk for 10 dB increment in noise during the previous evening (Leve OR = 1.007, 95% CI 0.999–1.015), particularly from 22:00–23:00 h (OR = 1.007, 95% CI 1.000–1.013), and the early morning hours 04:30–06:00 h (OR = 1.012, 95% CI 1.002–1.021) for all CVD admissions, but no significant associations with day-time noise. There was effect modification by age-sex, ethnicity, deprivation, and season, and some suggestion that high noise variability at night was associated with higher risks. Our findings are consistent with proposed mechanisms for short-term impacts of aircraft noise at night on CVD from experimental studies, including sleep disturbance, increases in blood pressure and stress hormone levels and impaired endothelial function

Aircraft noise and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality near Heathrow Airport: a case-crossover study

Aircraft noise causes annoyance and sleep disturbance and there is some evidence of associations between long-term exposures and cardiovascular disease (CVD). We investigated short-term associations between previous day aircraft noise and cardiovascular events in a population of 6.3 million residing near Heathrow Airport using a case-crossover design and exposure data for different times of day and night. We included all recorded hospitalisations (n=442,442) and deaths (n=49,443) in 2014-2018 due to CVD. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate the ORs and adjusted for NO2 concentration, temperature, and holidays. We estimated an increase in risk for 10dB increment in noise during the previous evening (Leve OR = 1.007, 95% CI 0.999-1.015), particularly from 22:00-23:00h (OR= 1.007, 95% CI 1.000-1.013), and the early morning hours 04:30-06:00h (OR= 1.012, 95% CI 1.002-1.021) for all CVD admissions, but no significant associations with day-time noise. There was effect modification by age-sex, ethnicity, deprivation, and season, and some suggestion that high noise variability at night was associated with higher risks. Our findings are consistent with proposed mechanisms for short-term impacts of aircraft noise at night on CVD from experimental studies, including sleep disturbance, increases in blood pressure and stress hormone levels and impaired endothelial function

Spatial assessment of the attributable burden of disease due to transportation noise in England.

BACKGROUND: Noise pollution from transportation is one of the leading contributors to the environmental disease burden in Europe. We provide a novel assessment of spatial variations of these health impacts within a country, using England as an example. METHODS: We estimated the burden of annoyance (highly annoyed), sleep disturbance (highly sleep disturbed), ischemic heart disease (IHD), stroke, and diabetes attributable to long-term transportation noise exposures in England for the adult population in 2018 down to local authority level (average adult population: 136,000). To derive estimates, we combined literature-informed exposure-response relationships, with population data on noise exposures, disease, and mortalities. Long-term average noise exposures from road, rail and aircraft were sourced from strategic noise mapping, with a lower exposure threshold of 50 dB (decibels) Lden and Lnight. RESULTS: 40 %, 4.5 % and 4.8 % of adults in England were exposed to road, rail, and aircraft noise exceeding 50 dB Lden. We estimated close to a hundred thousand (∼97,000) disability adjusted life years (DALY) lost due to road-traffic, ∼13,000 from railway, and ∼ 17,000 from aircraft noise. This excludes some noise-outcome pairs as there were too few studies available to provide robust exposure-response estimates. Annoyance and sleep disturbance accounted for the majority of the DALYs, followed by strokes, IHD, and diabetes. London, the South East, and North West regions had the greatest number of road-traffic DALYs lost, while 63 % of all aircraft noise DALYs were found in London. The strategic noise mapping did not include all roads, which may still have significant traffic flows. In sensitivity analyses using modelled noise from all roads in London, the DALYs were 1.1x to 2.2x higher. CONCLUSION: Transportation noise exposures contribute to a significant and unequal environmental disease burden in England. Omitting minor roads from the noise exposure modelling leads to underestimation of the disease burden

Surveillance, performativity and normalised practice: the use and impact of graded lesson observations in Further Education colleges

In little over a decade, the observation of teaching and learning (OTL) has become the cornerstone of Further Education (FE) colleges’ quality systems for assuring and improving the professional skills and knowledge base of tutors. Yet OTL remains an under-researched area of inquiry with little known about the impact of its use on the professional identity, learning and development of FE tutors. This paper examines the specific practice of graded OTL and in so doing discusses findings from a mixed-methods study conducted in 10 colleges situated across the West Midlands region of England. Data from a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews were analysed within a theoretical framework that drew largely on aspects of Foucauldian theory as well as the twin phenomena of new managerialism and performativity. This analysis revealed how OTL has become normalised as a performative tool of managerialist systems designed to assure and improve standards, performance and accountability in teaching and learning. It is argued that FE has now outgrown graded OTL and it is time for a moratorium on its use. Colleges and tutors need to be given greater professional autonomy with regard to OTL and be allowed to develop their own systems that place professional learning and development at the forefront, rather than the requirements of performance management systems

GIS Layers: Regional inequalities in benzene exposures across the European petrochemical industry

GIS mapping files of the European petrochemical industry, regional health and regional air quality (2007-15

Environmental injustices of children's exposure to air pollution from road-transport within the model British multicultural city of Leicester: 2000-09

The significant contribution of road-transport to air pollution within the urban arena is widely acknowledged, and traditionally explored in relation to health outcomes across a temporal scale. However, the structure of the urban environment is also of importance in dictating the existence of extremely variable traffic pollutant levels, which often tend to be linked with social disparities. Nevertheless ‘Environmental Justice’ studies have rarely tackled the adverse health implications of exposures from mobile sources (Chakraborty, 2009), or have applied statistical techniques that are appropriate for such spatial data (Gilbert and Chakraborty, 2011). This article addresses these gaps by spatially examining the distribution of respiratory hospitalisation incidents of children aged 0–15 years in relation to social circumstances and residential exposures of annual PM10 roadtransport emissionswithin Leicester during 2000–09. Continuing upon the theme of ‘Environmental Justice’, the research explores the intra-urban spatial distribution of those who produce and residentially experience the majority of road-transport emissions. The findings indicate significant global relationships to exist between children's hospitalisation rates and socialeconomic- status, ethnic minorities, and PM10 road-transport emissions within Leicester. Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) and Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) identified important localised variations within the dataset, specifically relating to a double-burden of residentially experienced roadtransport emissions and deprivation effecting inner city children's respiratory health. Furthermore, affluent intra-urban communities tended to contribute the highest levels of emission from private transport, while residentially experiencing relatively lowexposure of transport emissions. Thiswould suggest that environmental injustices prevail across the model British multicultural city of Leicester

GIS Layers: Regional inequalities in benzene exposures across the European petrochemical industry

GIS mapping files of the European petrochemical industry, regional health and regional air quality (2007-15)THIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV

Regional inequalities in benzene exposures across the European petrochemical industry: A Bayesian multilevel modelling approach

Background: Pollutants released from the petrochemical industry are thought to increase the risk of mortality in fence-line communities, yet the results from previous studies are often inconsistent and lack a global perspective, hampered by the absence of cohesive cross-country research. Objectives: To provide the first Pan-European analysis of benzene exposures from the petrochemical industry, connecting polluting practices to pollution episodes and disparities in regional mortality rates, identifying the measures of best environmental practice to mitigate adverse outcomes. Methods: The activity, classification and location of onshore petrochemical facilities within EU-28 Member States were extracted from the ‘European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register’ (E-PRTR), which holds records on 31,753 industrial operations for the reporting period of 2007–15. Parent company records were collected from the Moody's Analytics Amadeus database of 487,338 active companies across Europe. The EUROSTAT census provided records of income, life expectancy, and the underlying demographics used to calculate standardised health outcomes based on 9,936 sub-populations within the NUTS2 regions. The European Environment Agency provided ambient concentrations of benzene from 579 air quality stations. Bayesian multilevel models were constructed to account for variability caused by spatial hierarchical structures, uncertainty in the estimates, and to incorporate both individual and group-level influences. Results: Higher levels of benzene emissions from petrochemical operations, both overall and in terms of specific pollution events, were associated with increased mortality rates for nearby residential populations, particularly in areas with socioeconomic deprivation. We identify uneven patterns of polluting practices within the industry, and locations that require epidemiological studies. Conclusions: While petrochemical facilities in all European Union regions are regulated to be compliant with the annual average benzene limit of 5 μg/m3, uneven exposures still present regional health inequalities. We recommend extending benzene regulations to an hourly or daily limit, alongside the strengthening of regulation for other toxic petrochemical releases

Implementation of the Polluter-Pays Principle (PPP) in local transport policy

Previous research has highlighted significant socio-environmental inequalities in the UK and elsewhere. A city's greatest polluters typically reside in affluent suburban communities located along the city's periphery, while those creating the least emissions reside in central locations, and most likely experience the largest associated health burdens. Using the culturally diverse city of Leicester as a study case, and building on Mitchell and Dorling's (2003) localised form of the Polluter Pays Principle, we investigate this environmental injustice. A pattern detection analysis of localised intra-urban interactions was undertaken using a ‘Local Indicators of Spatial Association’ (LISA) modelling approach of high resolution census data, Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) records, road transport emission maps and geocoded hospital admissions records provided by the NHS Leicester City Primary Care Trust. Pearson's R statistics identified an inverse correlation between mobile polluters and communities characterised as either socially (− 0.78) or environmentally burdened (− 0.34), confirming the existence of environmental inequalities. While some inner-city communities moderately contribute towards their environmental burden, these contributions were substantially outweighed by those made by external communities, whom appear to avoid the social, environment and physical cost of their actions. In contrast to their more affluent counterparts, residents of less affluent areas tend to use ‘greener’ and more active transport options, although any associated health benefits appear largely offset by increased periods of environmental exposure. Strong signs of spatial structuring within the modelling framework, suggest there may be a need to tailor travel schemes to local populaces. For example, in affluent areas where less environmentally friendly transport options tend to be adopted, options based on local carpool schemes may be more amenable than those based on enhanced public services

“Returned Migrants Acquisition of Competences: the Contingencies of Space and Time”

The conditions which determine the acquisition of skills by migrants are still poorly understood. This paper addresses two of those conditions: the temporality of the acquisition of competences, whether the number and duration of migrations matter, as well as the spatiality, or the variation across countries of origin and return. Based on a large-scale online panel survey of returned young migrants in nine European countries, the significance of time (duration) and space (number of migrations) in the acquisition of skills and competences are examined. The findings reveal that young European returnees’ experiences gained abroad result in largely positive outcomes but with significant differences between formal qualifications, language skills and personal and cultural competences. However, their acquisition of skills and competences is mediated by temporality – the combination of number of trips, and duration of migration. Spatiality is also important, with outcomes depending on the destination countries, and whether migration and return are from or to rural versus urban areas. These indicate that structural considerations continue to shape individual migration experiences within the EU’s freedom of movement space