TAKE ACTION

Dear ________________

I live in ____________________ area, and can tell you that the number one reason why many people live here is because it was a quiet neighbourhood. This has changed dramatically. YVR had 297,350 aircraft movements in 2025 — 148,675 landings. That works out to one landing every 3.5 minutes on average, and every 2 minutes or less during peak hours, at 60-70 dB(A) overhead. People are being woken up (literally) to the sound of airplanes multiple times per night.

If you don't know what 60 dB(A) sounds like I encourage you to download a sound-level meter app and measure it yourself. It is loud — especially in contrast to what our neighbourhoods were before, which was around 40 dB(A).

A critical point: NavCanada's own noise-footprint diagrams only show contours above 55 dB(A). The World Health Organization sets 45 dB(A) as the maximum acceptable nighttime noise level, above which there are documented health risks. The real impact on our communities is far worse than NavCanada's diagrams suggest. A 5 dB(A) increase is a doubling of perceived noise. (Source: WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines, 2018.)

Peer-reviewed European studies demonstrate real harm: the German Cologne-Bonn Airport study (Greiser et al. 2007) found 60 dB(A) aircraft noise increased coronary heart disease by 61% in men and 80% in women. Swiss researchers (Saucy et al. 2021) found nighttime aircraft noise raised cardiovascular-death risk by 44%. A BMJ study near Heathrow found stroke admissions were 24% higher in the noisiest areas.

In children, the RANCH study across 3 European countries (Stansfeld et al. 2005, The Lancet) found chronic aircraft-noise exposure measurably impairs reading comprehension and long-term memory. This is already affecting our schools.

On property values, a 2025 MIT/NBER study (Allroggen et al., "Planes Overhead") found house prices drop 0.6-1% per decibel of aircraft noise. With 20-30 dB(A) increases over our baseline, this is a 12-30% hit to our biggest asset — and Canadian real-estate disclosure rules require sellers to disclose flight-path proximity.

I understand there is a need for an airport, but the flight paths have been implemented with no regard for residents who chose these neighbourhoods specifically because they were quiet. The situation has become untenable.

To find out more please check out https://nooverflights.com

What are you doing to reverse this decision and protect our community?

A concerned citizen of your community