Miro wants to extend VTANG lease until 2073

Time to fight!

Hey All,

Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger wants to extend the lease for the Vermont Air National Guard at the airport until 2073. (press release, VTDigger article) Yes, 2073. That's not a typo.

This is infuriating. The F-35s have to go now.

What should you do?

1. Email Burlington City Council (citycouncil@burlingtonvt.gov) telling them to VOTE NO. City council is expected to vote on this item on Monday, October 23rd. Yes, Miro is shoving this down our throats with 11 days' notice and no public input.

2. Save the date, show up in person to the city council meeting on Monday, October 23rd, and demand that they VOTE NO.

3. Join an organizing meeting on Sunday, October 15th at 10am at this zoom link so we can better coordinate our resistance. All are welcome.

4. Forward this email to anybody who might want to join the fight. There are over 400 people on this CancelF35.substack.com list, but I know there are many thousands more who are opposed to this.

Finally, see below for a powerful letter from pediatric neurologist Dr. Peter Bingham calling for Burlington City Council to vote no on this issue and immediately remove the F-35s.

Solidarity,

Dan

P.S. If you have been inactive or not particularly engaged on this issue for a while, now is the time for action. I urge you to join this 10-day campaign (!) so we can win.

Pediatric neurologist Dr. Peter Bingham’s letter to the City Council

Dear  City Councilors,

I am writing regarding the pending decision of Burlington Councilors regarding the Vermont Air National Guard Lease renewal. As a pediatric neurologist, I have been trying to draw leaders' attention to the health effects of noise due to the F-35. I feel strongly that the lease renewal should entail discontinuation of F-35 flights over our neighborhoods.  

Please remember that noise pollution is far more than a nuisance--it is also a neurotoxin. Think of it as the equivalent of lead poisoning, vibrating through the air. I and my fellow citizens rely on you to listen carefully to the truth about health effects of noise pollution, most especially, here, today, health effects of F-35 jet flyovers.

Please Listen: decades of research attest to this truth. To you, it drives up your blood pressure, it damages the walls of your arteries, it increases your risk of dementia, heart attack, and depression. To your children and your neighbor's children: it decreases their reading ability, it messes up their attention span, it increases their tendency to depression, suicide. How much "economic growth" could balance such costs?

I rely on you to take the long view, just as our forebears in Vermont did when they envisioned the Green Mountain State. Please don't just count up today's dollars.

Please listen: deafness is not an all or none thing. It is incremental, and we humans may be the last to know of our own deafness, since deafness itself increases the risk of dementia. If we turn a deaf ear to the noise problem of the F 35, we shall surely all grow more deaf.

Vermonters are strong, resilient, but when it comes to toxic effects of noise, we are not different from the millions of people studied around the world as research subjects whose vulnerability to the neuro-toxic and vascular-toxic effects of noise has been clearly shown, known for decades. If you turn a deaf ear to this issue, we who are under the flightpath shall become more deaf.

The city of Burlington rightly holds property owners responsible for the living conditions of people who sign their leases. If housing conditions threaten tenants' health, we know that's not OK. Please step up and follow through with this principle: if VTANG's lease is to continue, VTANG ought not continue F-35 flights in our skies.

Some references on this important environmental health issue below.

Thank you for your service to our city,

Peter Bingham MD
Professor of Neurology & Pediatrics
Vermont Children's Hospital
(speaking on my own, not my employer's, behalf)

Many studies have reported that noise can adversely affect children’s academic performance. Transport noise is well studied. Some of the most important studies are the Los Angeles airport study, the New York airport study, the Munich and Heathrow studies. References:

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2.        Stansfeld SA, Clark C, Cameron RM, Alfred T, Head J, Haines MM, van Kamp I, van Kempen E, Lopez-Barrio I. Aircraft and road traffic noise exposure and children's mental health. Journal of Environmental Psychology. 2009;29(2):203-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2009.01.002. PubMed PMID: WOS:000267085300004.
3.        Schubert et al. Behavioral and Emotional Disorders and Transportation Noise among Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2019.
4.        Clark C, Head J, Haines M, van Kamp I, van Kempen E, Stansfeld SA. A metaanalysis of the association of aircraft noise at school on children's reading comprehension and psychological health for use in health impact assessment. Journal of Environmental Psychology. 2021;76. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101646. PubMed PMID: WOS:000684890300025.
5.        van Kempen E, Fischer P, Janssen N, Houthuijs D, van Kamp I, Stansfeld S, Cassee F. Neurobehavioral effects of exposure to traffic-related air pollution and transportation noise in primary schoolchildren. Environmental Research. 2012;115:18-25. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2012.03.002. PubMed PMID: WOS:000303973700003.
6.        Raess M, et al. Association between community noise and children's cognitive and behavioral development: A prospective cohort study. Environ Int. 2022 Jan;158:106961. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106961. Epub 2021 Nov 2.
7.        Clark C, Martin R, van Kempen E, Alfred T, Head J, Davies HW, Haines MM, Barrio IL, Matheson M, Stansfeld SA. Exposure-effect relations between aircraft and road traffic noise exposure at school and reading comprehension - The RANCH project. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2006;163(1):27-37. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwj001. PubMed PMID: WOS:000234223200004.
8.        Stansfeld S Clark C. Health Effects of Noise Exposure in Children. Curr Environ Health Rep 2015 2:171-8
9.        Basner M, Babisch W, Davis A, Brink M, Clark C, Janssen S, Stansfeld S. Auditory and non-auditory effects of noise on health. Lancet. 2014;383(9925):1325-32. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(13)61613-x. PubMed PMID: WOS:000334104900031.
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12.   Dzhambov A, Dimitrova D. Neighborhood noise pollution as a determinant of displaced aggression: A pilot study. Noise & Health. 2014;16(69):95-101. doi: 10.4103/1463-1741.132090. PubMed PMID: WOS:000336524500005.
13.   Alimohammadi I, Kanrash FA, Abolaghasemi J, Afrazandeh H, Rahmani K. Effect of Chronic Noise Exposure on Aggressive Behavior of Automotive Industry Workers. International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2018;9(4):170-5. doi: 10.15171/ijoem.2018.1375. PubMed PMID: WOS:000447206000003.
14.   Stansfeld S, Clark C, Smuk M, Gallacher J, Babisch W. Road traffic noise, noise sensitivity, noise annoyance, psychological and physical health and mortality. Environmental Health. 2021;20(1). doi: 10.1186/s12940-021-00720-3. PubMed PMID: WOS:000632927300001.
15.   Preisendorfer P, Enzler HB, Diekmann A, Hartmann J, Kurz K, Liebe U. Pathways to Environmental Inequality: How Urban Traffic Noise Annoyance Varies across Socioeconomic Subgroups. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022;19(22). doi: 10.3390/ijerph192214984. PubMed PMID: WOS:000887305100001.
16.     Chen HC Noise-induced Cochlear Synaptopathy and Signal Processing Disorders. 2019 Neuroscience 407:41-52
18.   Hegewald J, Schubert M, Freiberg A, Starke KR, Augustin F, Riedel-Heller SG, Zeeb H, Seidler A. Traffic Noise and Mental Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020;17(17). doi: 10.3390/ijerph17176175. PubMed PMID: WOS:000570325100001.
19.   Sorensen M, Raaschou-Nielsen O, Poulsen AH, Hvidtfeldt UA, Brandt J, Khan J, Jensen SS, Munzel T, Thacher JD. Long-term exposure to residential transportation noise and mortality: A nationwide cohort study. Environmental Pollution. 2023;328. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121642. PubMed PMID: WOS:000984758400001.
21.   Hygge S, Evans GW, Bullinger M. A prospective study of some effects of aircraft noise on cognitive performance in schoolchildren. Psychol Sci. 2002; 13:469–74. [PubMed: 12219816] [Before the opening of the new Munich International Airport and the termination of the old airport, children near both sites were recruited into aircraft -noise groups (aircraft noise at present or pending) and control groups with no aircraft noise (closely matched for socioeconomic status). A total of 326 children (mean age = 10.4 years) took part in three data - collection waves, one before and two after the switch -over of the airports. After the switch, long-term memory and reading were impaired in the noise group at the new airport. and improved in the formerly noise -exposed group at the old airport. Short -term memory also improved in the latter group after the old airport was closed. At the new airport, speech perception was impaired in the newly noise- exposed group.]
22.      National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Assessing Aircraft Noise Conditions Affecting Student Learning, Volume 1: Final Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press; 2014. https://doi.org/10.17226/22433.
23. American Public Health Association, policy statement #202115, Noise as a Public Health Hazard, Oct 2021.
24. Balk, Sophie J. MD; Fink, Daniel MD. Protecting Infants’ and Children’s Hearing. The Hearing Journal 75(6):p 18,19,20, June 2022. | DOI: 10.1097/01.HJ.0000833452.23352.b1
25. https://journals.lww.com/thehearingjournal/Fulltext/2022/06000/Protecting_Infants__and_Children_s_Hearing.1.aspx
World Health Organization: Children and noise: training for health care providers

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