| Plane Pollution David Holzman Abstract
In regulating aircraft and airports, several compelling interests compete: safety, international commerce, and environmental quality. The issue of the effect of airports on the environment and human health has heated up in recent years as public interest and citizens' groups contest airport expansion on environmental and health grounds, and the airline and airport industries attempt to meet increasingly stringent regulations in these areas. In 1993 alone, airports emitted 350 million pounds of carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds, and nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere during landing and takeoff cycles. Passenger cars and buses entering and leaving airports and ground service vehicles only compound the problem. Toxic glycols, used to de-ice airplanes during winter storms, flow into nearby waterways. Noise pollution, believed to cause physical and emotional health problems and to interfere with learning, is another problem. While protecting nearby homeowners is largely optional on the part of the airports, some U.S. airports are taking measures to lessen these negative health effects. Advances in engine design may reduce toxic emissions as well as help with the noise problem. Other solutions to the noise issue include innovative methods for taking off and curfews for takeoff times. And recapturing glycols for recycling and using alternate methods for de-icing may help alleviate the water pollution issue. However, even as planes become quieter and cleaner, increasing numbers of them are expected to fill the skies, and it is likely that population pressure will lead to greater numbers of people living near airports. The 25--30 year life span of airplanes will keep large numbers of today's aircraft aloft long after technological advances begin to make significantly cleaner engines available.
The full version of this article is available for free in HTML format. | 
