Sociodemographic Patterns of Exposure to Civil Aircraft Noise in the United States

Communities with lower socioeconomic status and higher prevalence of racial/ethnic minority populations are often more exposed to environmental pollutants. Although studies have shown associations between aircraft noise and property values and various health outcomes, little is known about how aircraft noise exposures are sociodemographically patterned.Our aim was to describe characteristics of populations exposed to aviation noise by race/ethnicity, education, and income in the United States.Aircraft noise contours characterized as day-night average sound level (DNL) were developed for 90 U.S. airports in 2010 for DNLAggregated across multiple airports, block groups with a higher Hispanic population had higher odds of being exposed to aircraft noise. For example, the multinomial analysis showed that a 10-percentage point increase in a block group's Hispanic population was associated with an increased odds ratio of 39% (95% CI: 25%, 54%) of being exposed toThese results suggest that across U.S. airports, there is indication of sociodemographic disparities in noise exposures. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP9307.