Don't buy a house near an airport: a Swedish study has found a correlation between living near noisy airports and "an elevated risk of high blood pressure due to noise pollution." [Reuters]
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Comments:
@GreatCaesarsGhost: Oh, poor, poor you. Your life must be pretty bland if that sort of thing is worth whining about.
@kenposan: I'd a hundred times rather deal with airport noise, or even train noise, than with my noisy apartment neighbors.
We lived near an airport shared with the air guard and the commercial terminal. The commercial flights were usually not much of a bother. That is with the exception of the early evening Fed Ex plane that would strafe our house every night.
The only real bother was the air guard fighter jets would do maneuvers a couple of times a week that involved coming in at low altitude. It would literally knock things off walls and shelves.
My stress level dropped when we moved. I'm sure the pit bulls running the neighborhood and the bi-weekly police standoff down the road might have contributed to my angst.
Want something that will make your blood pressure jump a few points? Try living near a fire station. I grew up across the street from one, and I live less than a block from one now. At least the planes at an airport take off and land with relative frequency and predictability.
Except for Tuesday night at 7pm, I don't know when the fire siren or ambulance siren is going off. Then there's the impending knuckleheads driving too fast in their cars with blue lights on them to get to the station, followed by the fire truck or ambulance itself. It's all well and good, I'm for it if it gets someone's house put out or keeps an accident victim alive longer. And it's gotten better over the years, mostly it's done over pagers now. Still though, at 2am the last thing you want is to be woken out of a sound sleep by that hot mess.
The planes aren't so bad. You get used to them in no time. However, I was unlucky enough to live next to Dullas International Airport for several years. Starting on September 11, 2001, Blackhawk helicopters would fly over my house every night and sometimes at other hours. I never got used to that noise.
We moved into the No-Fly Zone in 2003, but they loooosened the restrictions A LOT a few months ago and we get planes over our new house now. I honestly don't pay any mind to them, it's like they don't exist. And my blood pressure? Low.








Also, don't touch a hot stove.
Good work, Consumerist.