Military attack jets may be harming the health of up to 74,000 people in Washington state, a study has found.
The research, published by University of Washington (UW) scientists, focused on how noise emitted from the Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft flying from the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island is affecting the area's entire population.
Their results indicate that the noise isn't just annoying for residents but can pose a very serious public health risk.
"Military aircraft noise is substantially more intense and disturbing than commercial jet noise," said lead author Giordano Jacuzzi, a graduate student in the UW College of the Environment, in a statement.
"Noise exposure has many downstream effects beyond just annoyance and stress—high levels of sleep disturbance, hearing impairment, increased risk of cardiovascular disease—these have real impacts on human health and quality of life," he continued. "We also found that several schools in the area are exposed to levels that have been shown to put children at risk of delayed learning."
Specifically, it's the intensity, the intermittent nature of the noise and the low-frequency energy, Jacuzzi said.
"Those three things are very different than what you experience from normal commercial flights, which are predictable and high in altitude. When Growlers fly over a home, they emit a rumbling noise that penetrates windows and shakes walls," he said.
To reach their findings, researchers examined four weeks of Navy data collected between 2020 and 2021. They then looked at how high noise exposure was across the area.
Overall, they estimate that two-thirds of Island County residents likely suffered from these loud noises. These people include those living in the cities of Oak Harbor and Coupeville. They also found that 85 percent of the Swinomish Indian Reservation was also exposed.
This totals 74, 316 people. Of this number, 41,089 were exposed to noise at night, which affected their sleep, while 8,059—who lived very close to the landing strips—were exposed so much that they risked losing their hearing over time.
Reached by Newsweek, Naval Air Station Whidbey Island and the U.S. Department of Justice did not comment on the findings.
Noise monitoring stations reported that the jets' noise was over 100 decibels as they were flying, the study reported. Some instances reported the noise levels as "off the charts."
"Our bodies produce a lot of stress hormone response to noise in general," said study co-author Edmund Seto, a UW professor of environmental and occupational health sciences, in a statement. "It doesn't matter what kind of noise it is. But particularly if it's this repeated acute noise, you might expect that stress hormone response to be exacerbated."
Seto continued: "What was really interesting was that we're reaching noise exposure levels that are actually harmful for hearing. Usually I only think of hearing in the context of working in factories or other really, really loud occupational settings. But here, we're reaching those levels for the community."
Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft are infamously loud, much more so than other planes. This problem has been ongoing since 2013, when the Navy moved more of the jets to the location. This is also when flights were increased to over 110,000 a year. Since then, there has been much controversy and legal disputes over the noise.
Another co-author of the study and a member of a community group that sued the Navy over the noise is Bob Wilbur, a resident who moved to a retirement home on the island. He suffers from the noise whenever the jets fly by, sometimes up to four days a week.
"It interrupts your day," he said in a statement. "You're unable to have a pleasant evening at home. You can't communicate. You constantly try to organize your day around being gone when the jets are flying."
Study co-author Julian Olden, a UW professor of aquatic and fishery sciences, said it was particularly "striking" that the noise made by Growlers exceeded current scientific understanding of the potential health outcomes.
"Our research was motivated by the growing chorus of complaints by Washingtonians across multiple counties," Olden said. "We believe the science speaks for itself. It's no longer a question of whether noise impacts people, but how, where and how much these effects are experienced."
Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about Growler jets? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
