Northern Hills Homeowner's Association

It's not just the Noise we don't want....

Oct 21, 2001

This was an email to the Citizen's Aviation Air Watch.

There is an interesting article in Newsweek about the drop in oil prices caused by the present crises. I guess there are numerous things one can take away from it but one thing I think it emphasizes is the tremendous amount of oil consumed by the aviation industry world wide.

and the Answer by Jack Saporito.

I understand that the only 44,000 commercial aircraft, use 10 percent of the world's oil supply!

It is also important to note that 93 percent of those emissions are spent at or relatively close to the airport (20-40 miles)! (Landing, taxiing, idling and take-off geomodes use most of the fuel.)
Jet aircraft produce staggering amounts of pollution and under unusual conditions which I won't get into. Unlike cars and trucks, whose emissions and disease generally fall within a 750-foot radius of the roadway, jet aircraft pollution is spewed out of the powerful turbines miles wide and miles long overhead. At the airport itself, the turbines jettison & fan
emissions away from the airport, generally into communities. An ENVIRON study of O'Hare Airport shows that the airport causes unacceptable cancer
risks for 32-miles away from the airport (98 communities).

Sadly, this is well beyond a major environmental problem; it is a major public health problem. At the very least: Airports and urban population centers are not compatible.

Jack Saporito
Pres., US-Citizens Aviation Watch Association / www.us-caw.org
Exec. Dir., Alliance of Residents Concerning O'Hare / www.areco.org
Board member, Mothers Against Airport Pollution