Noise Pollution around Boston Logan Airport

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College Writing-Econ
This essay will focus on the problem of persistent airplane noise around Boston Logan airport. This problem fits into economic theory because it concerns property rights and how an entity’s actions, in this case, the airport’s, affect the community’s outcome surrounding the Boston Logan International Airport (Yue). When one actor’s activities affect other people, issues surrounding fairness and equality become problems of externalities and common resources (Class Text, Economics 365-01, -02, -03 (S22)). In this case, the enduring noise pollution by Logan Airport as well as the long-term impacts of the same, are a case of negative spillover on third parties who are not part of the activity, causing the negative social cost. The airport is not a common resource in that not everyone is allowed to use the airport. Common resources must be rivalrous in consumption but not excludable (Class Text, Common Resources). Besides, America has consistently failed to regard space as a common resource, and not everyone is allowed to fly in the portion of the atmosphere controlled by the government. The issue of noise pollution by Boston Logan International Airport is a negative externality since the airport’s activity is an economic activity that negatively impacts unrelated third parties.
This negative effect is noise pollution, and the unrelated third party denotes residents of the communities surrounding the airport who have to endure the constant noise of flying aircraft. The potential issues with noise pollution involve the adverse health impacts inflicted on the millions of people living close to the airport. Studies indicate that there are direct positive correlations between noise and health. Some of the health problems caused by noise pollution include stress-related illness, high blood pressure, speech interference, sleep disruption, hearing loss, and lost productivity. One of the most typical and often debated health effects is Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL). Various studies have shown that continued exposure to constant or high levels of noise can result in innumerable negative health impacts. The Boston Municipal Code has set standards for noise levels perceptible to the human ear that classify as unreasonable: any noise level louder than 50 decibels from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. or anything louder than 70 decibels at any time, excluding instances of permitted construction, is considered unreasonable (Class Text, Noise Pollution).
However, while doing her Ph.D. thesis on noise levels in Boston City, researcher Erica Walker discovered that East Boston, the location of Boston Logan International Airport, regularly flouts the ordinance thresholds set by the Boston Municipal from the continuous roar of jet engines. In addition to distinguishable sounds, Dr. Walker determined that the airport was also responsible for low-frequency noises called ‘infrasound,’ which also have an adverse impact on our bodies. Walker collected noise samples from several sites across the three neighborhoods neighboring Boston Logan International Airport, including Eagle Hill, Orient Heights, and Jefferies Point. Even though noise levels in the three communitie...