Community Concerns

Environment

Public Health

Noise

Residents near Hanscom field have serious concerns about aircraft noise. Nighttime operations cause sleep disturbance and daytime operations interrupt outdoor activities. There is widespread concern about the impact of aviation activities on historical sites, including Walden Pond, Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and Minute Man National Historical Park. Recent studies have documented the adverse effects of sudden noise on human health.

Massport has implemented a “fly friendly” program to reduce these impacts, but FAA rules don’t allow any restrictions on aircraft operations, in effect protecting exactly the operations that are the problem. There are not even provisions in FAA rules to limit nighttime activities or operations during special holidays, such as Patriot’s Day celebrations at the Old North Bridge.

Many local residents feel the FAA rules unfairly protect aviation activities at the expense of people living near the airport. There is a growing sense of frustration regarding an apparent unwillingness by the FAA to even engage in meaningful discussion of common-sense restrictions on aviation that would alleviate suffering.

More and more citizens are taking action to increase awareness and reduce noise pollution. Here are some actions that you can take:

Report a specific noise complaint from Hanscom by calling the noise complaint line at 781-869-8050. A full guide is available as a Bedford Citizen article.
Write to your state and federal legislators, describing your specific issues with aviation noise.
Write to the Federal Aviation Administration, documenting the adverse impacts of noise that you are experiencing.
Attend HFAC meetings on zoom the 3rd Tuesday evening of each month (except August). All are welcome and there is a designated time each meeting for public comment. You can sign up to get notifications when new agendas are published. Instructions are available here.
Send in your comments whenever Massport allows for public comment. For example, watch for the next public comment period for the proposed Hanscom expansion at North Airfield. Issues where public comments are invited will be discussed at HFAC meetings.

PFAS

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are a group of manufactured chemicals that have been used in industry and consumer products since the 1940s because of their useful properties. There are thousands of types of PFAS. They have properties that resist heat, grease, and water and are in some types of firefighting foam used by airports, including Hanscom Field. Due to health concerns, firefighting foam containing PFAS needs to be phased out as soon as practicable. The FAA has approved PFAS free firefighting foam. Massport has not provided a public transition plan.

The Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) senior strategic director of health and food, Erik D. Olson, says PFAS are dangerous for three crucial reasons. “First, the structure of PFAS means they resist breakdown in the environment and in our bodies. Second, they move relatively quickly through the environment, making their contamination hard to contain. Third, for some PFAS, even extremely low levels of exposure can negatively impact our health.”

Current peer-reviewed scientific studies have shown that exposure to certain levels of PFAS may lead to:

Reproductive effects such as decreased fertility or increased high blood pressure in pregnant women.
Developmental effects or delays in children, including low birth weight, accelerated puberty, bone variations, or behavioral changes.
Increased risk of some cancers, including prostate, kidney, and testicular cancers.
Reduced ability of the body’s immune system to fight infections, including reduced vaccine response.
Interference with the body’s natural hormones.
Increased cholesterol levels and/or risk of obesity.

The FAA has approved MILSPEC F3 as a PFAS-free firefighting foam for airports, and provided a transition plan for its deployment <https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/FAA_Aircraft_F3_Transition_Plan_2023.pdf>. Qualified products satisfying this specification are listed in the defense QPL <https://qpldocs.dla.mil/search/parts.aspx?qpl=4513&param=&type=32768> and <https://www.faa.gov/airports/resources/advisory_circulars/index.cfm/go/document.current/documentNumber/150_5210-6>.

The transition to PFAS-free firefighting foam can be implemented by Massport at any time. The FAA approval is in place and products are available. However, some time and planning is required because firefighters require specialized training and the transition process requires coordination to maintain required equipment. The cost is unknown, but may be significant.

HFAC advises Massport to create a transparent transition plan with a hard completion date, so the Hanscom community can be assured of mitigation to this health concern. At a minimum there should be a “capital projects” item for PFAS removal to track progress.

<https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/chemical/pfas.htm>

<https://www.epa.gov/pfas/our-current-understanding-human-health-and-environmental-risks-pfas>

<https://www.nrdc.org/stories/forever-chemicals-called-pfas-show-your-food-clothes-and-home>

<https://www.haleyaldrich.com/resources/articles/how-airports-can-plan-to-transition-from-pfas-containing-firefighting-foam/>

Lead

The aircraft that fly training patterns around Hanscom airport burn leaded fuel [1]. Lead is highly toxic, environmentally persistent and recent research has found its effect on public health is far worse than previously thought. Lead causes serious health problems or death, even in small doses. Recent research finds no safe threshold for lead exposure [2, 3, 4].

The effect on children is especially extreme [5, 6, 7, 8]. “A recent California-based study found that children who lived less than a mile away from an airport had 21% higher lead levels in their blood compared to children who lived farther away.” [9].

However, adults are also at risk [10] with estimated mortality recently increased tenfold due to new findings [11] “findings suggest that, of 2·3 million deaths every year in the USA, about 400,000 are attributable to lead exposure” (13% to 20%) [12].

In a recent finding the “EPA determines that lead emissions from aircraft engines cause or contribute to air pollution” [13]. Lead from piston engine aircraft is the leading source of airborne lead pollution in the USA [14].

Lead exposure is not uniform, certain geographic areas have significantly greater exposure than others, with the Northeast being a hotspot [15]; that study found our Middlesex Country to be number 23 in the list of “Counties with the Highest Potential Lead (Pb) Exposure Risk as Defined by Total Number of Children (<6 years old) Living in Census 2010 Tracts”. However, it should be noted that some studies of airport lead pollution produce unexpected results [16].

Hanscom Field is among the top 50 most lead polluting airports in the country [17]. The EPA describes methods methods to calculate airport lead inventories [18].

Unfortunately, the FAA has done little about this crisis, despite extensive guidance from the National Academies of Science [19]. The ineffectual PAFI program has been replaced by the equally stalled EAGLE program. Neither of these programs has done much to implement a solution to the problem, despite GAMI having created a solution in 2009 which was fully approved by the FAA for all piston engines in 2022. Pro-aviation sources have published complaints that the FAA is not working hard enough to eliminate leaded AvGas [20] although that particular milestone has now been passed [21].

We urge Massport and the FAA to recognize the severity of this problem both nationally and locally and to take all necessary measures to implement a solution at Hanscom Airport with urgent priority. Currently, there is a congressionally mandated deadline to phase out leaded AvGsa by 2030. We urge the FAA to take urgent steps to meet this deadline.

[1] https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/leaded-aviation-fuel-and-environment?newsId=14754

[2] https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/50-years-research-shows-there-no-safe-level-childhood-lead-exposure

[3] https://factor.niehs.nih.gov/2025/1/feature/2-feature-lead-exposure

[4] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)60745-3/abstract

[5] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5664703/

[6] https://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Lead-Exposure-In-Children-Affects-Brain-And-Behavior-045.aspx

[7] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7912619/

[8] https://systematicreviewsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13643-022-01963-y

[9] https://www.forbes.com/sites/anuradhavaranasi/2023/01/12/living-close-to-an-airport-puts-children-at-a-higher-risk-of-lead-exposure/

[10] https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/study-lead-exposure-can-be-deadly-adults

[11] https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/12/health/lead-exposure-cardiovascular-disease-study/index.html

[12] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(18)30025-2/fulltext