Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
has been recommended (Childers et al, 2000; Pleil et al, 2000). Examination of var-
ious biomarkers to show genotoxic endpoints in airport personnel showed no signif-
icant differences between airport workers and a control group (Pitarque et al, 1999).
In conclusion, although levels of air pollutants around airports are elevated, there
is no clear evidence that air-traffic associated pollution from airports causes any addi-
tional respiratory health impact. However, the high localized air pollution levels around
major airports associated with the total airport infrastructure are likely to have some
health impact on airport neighbours. Measures to improve airport-related air pollu-
tion through improved infrastructure and cleaner engine technologies should still be
made to try to meet local air quality standards with the resultant health benefits.
Realistically, however, this is unlikely to be achieved during the next 15 to 20 years.
The relationship between airports and their neighbours would be likely to improve
if they were to reduce NMVOC odour-causing emissions through improved fuel hand-
ling procedures, etc, to reduce air quality anxieties in the surrounding population.
T
HIRD
-
PARTY
RISK
A lesser but still significant health consideration is the third-party risk of a major
aviation incident affecting the airport neighbourhood population. European con-
cerns over third-party risk have been driven notably by the crash of the Boeing 747
at Amsterdam in 1992 that led to 39 third-party fatalities, although other events such
as the Concorde crash at Paris in 2000 have kept third-party risk high on both the
public and political agenda.
Airport growth is at a premium in densely populated and highly industrialized
countries, where it is virtually impossible to reduce aviation-related third-party risks
to zero. Therefore, authorities and the aviation industry had to face the task of how
to control these risks effectively.
In the UK, the concept of public safety zones (PSZs), which refers to the area adja-
cent to the end of a runway where development is restricted, has existed since 1958,
but until recently had relatively little scientific method to their derivation. However,
since the early 1990s, both the UK and the Netherlands have taken leading roles in
adopting a more scientific approach to public safety zones, which involves the gener-
ation of individual risk contours.
Both the UK and the Netherlands models focus primarily upon individual risk
models where the individual risk is defined as the chance that a person staying at a fixed
location permanently is killed as a result of an accident from the hazard. In the UK,
the value of the upper limit to tolerable risk of death for third parties is taken to be the
widely used value of a risk of death to any individual of 1 in 10,000 per year, as rec-
ommended by the Health and Safety Executive for other industries.
The calculation of individual risk for different locations around an airport allows
a risk contour map to be created. The contours join points, which are subject to the
same individual risk. The risk calculation requires three basic quantities, as outlined
below.
