A leading expert in noise and health from Queen Mary, University of London, has been appointed to an advisory panel set up to help assess options for increasing the UK’s aviation capacity.
More than 200 million passengers and more than 2 million tonnes of freight are carried by UK airlines and airports every year. These numbers are forecast to increase meaning there is an urgent need to look at expanding the UK’s aviation capacity, while at the same time taking into account the climate change impacts of aviation and the impact of noise on communities living near airports
The Airports Commission was established by the government last year to assess the UK’s future aviation needs and consider how extra capacity may be best achieved. To help in this work the Commission has this month announced an Expert Advisory Panel, bringing together specialists in a number of relevant fields including noise, economics, climate change, air pollution, transport and civil engineering
Dr Charlotte Clark, Senior Lecturer in Environmental & Mental Health Epidemiology at Queen Mary, is a member of the new panel. Dr Clark has been researching the effects of noise on health and cognition for more than ten years and co-managed the European Union funded RANCH project, which examined the effect of aircraft and road traffic noise exposure on children’s health and cognition.
Dr Clark said: “It is a huge honour to have been invited to join the Airports Commission’s External Advisory Panel. I’m looking forward to advising the panel about the scientific evidence relating to the effects of environmental noise on human health and well-being, as part of the on-going political and economic debate about aviation in the UK.”
Dr Clark was also co-director of the European Union funded European Network on Noise and Health (ENNAH) – a network of more than 30 partners across Europe tasked with identifying future research needs and priorities for noise and health research (2009-2012), and chaired Team 4 ‘Effects of Noise on Performance’ for the International Commission of the Biological Effects of Noise (ICBEN) from 2003-2011.
The Airports Commission will present an interim report by the end of 2013 and a final report by the summer of 2015. For more information visit www.gov.uk/government/news/airports-commission-unveils-new-expert-panel
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