Toxic Jet Fuel Spews all over Westside - Santa Monica Airport: A Deadly Neighbor


By Theresa Hulme

The Santa Monica Airport boasts a long and proud history. The historic airport lays claim to some of the very first airplanes that circled the earth. The idyllic seaside community of Santa Monica, CA saw a huge migration to its soils as the airplane industry boomed and demanded new workers to build new technologies in aerospace.



Over the years, the airport has undergone many changes and is now the center of much controversy surrounding its somewhat illicit practices. Presently, airport management feels strongly that they do a superb job of keeping noise levels to a minimum while keeping neighbors safe, happy and feeling like they live next to an airport that really cares.

In fact, attend an airport commission meeting open to the public and employees will happily pronounce that complaints are down, jet operations are on the decrease, pollution is inconsequential, and pilots make sacrifices and absolutely do all they can to keep noise levels to a minimum. In general, airport staff feels it does everything possible to keep the peace.

Immediate airport neighbor Martin Rubin feels differently. I took a tour of the neighborhoods surrounding the airport recently with Mr. Rubin. Not only were the noise levels completely unacceptable but I became nauseous at the fumes that didn’t come in waves but were constant. We walked through the charming middle class neighborhood populated with long time Westside residents with perfect gardens and manicured lawns.

In a matter of minutes, I first heard from several miles, then saw, directly above my head, almost close enough to reach out and touch it: a jet. Probably carrying Larry King or John Travolta or possibly anyone of the elite class, the modern jet appeared unusually large and loud and seemingly incapable of using the small single runway built over 60 years ago.

Walking a few blocks east to the home of Mr. Rubin, he pointed out the sound of a jet engine idling while parked. Like the sound of an annoying insect or a distant siren, the idling continued for over 20 minutes. The ocean breeze blowing east brought the jet fumes directly into the windows of Mr. Rubins quaint home.

After gaining clearance from LAX, the jet took off and another filled its spot on the runway. Every few minutes, a corporate jet came screeching through the air landing on the aged runway, directly above homes that the occupants have worked long and hard to purchase. The monstrous aircraft were either coming or going. “This goes on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with Sundays being the worst days. You see, Sundays are the days that the business elite and celebrities are coming back from their weekends in Tahoe or their little excursions to Vegas,” Martin Rubin says.

Labor Day, Easter, any holiday that Americans treasure as personal, quiet, family days are the times when the privileged class feel just fine about disturbing the peace and spreading toxins into the air. There is no curfew on landing jets so this actually occurs 24/7. The noise is a huge destroyer of quality of life but even worse is the widespread pollution that the airport is responsible for. In fact, there is not one single pollution monitor at the airport.

Our nasal passages are a poor detector of dangerous substances. Many of the dangers of pollution occur at the unconscious level. If we are able to detect it through our noses, the levels are high enough to cause acute health problems, scientists say. What we can’t see or smell CAN hurt us.

Jet fuel contains an infinite amount of carcinogens that are known to be highly toxic to humans, plants and animals. A few of the dangerous elements include but are not limited to carbon monoxide, ozone, benzene, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide, 1,3 – butadiene, sulphur dioxide. Some pollution concentrations such as ozone and nitrogen dioxide tend to reach peak levels at a distance from the airport as they mix with other chemicals and pick up wind speed The chemicals, referred to as particulate matter or PM is dust, dirt, soot, smoke and liquid droplets and is the largest cause of haze or smog.

When gases from burning fuels react with sunlight and water vapor and transform into particles, smog is the result. Particulate matter causes a variety of health problems including asthma, respiratory dysfunction, chronic bronchitis, decreased lung function and premature death, just to name a few. A Harvard University study revealed that about 11% of infant deaths in the US were linked to microscopic particles in the air.
PM is an environmental hazard as well. After settling on water and soil, chemical and nutrient balances are disrupted thus negatively affecting animals, plants and everything that consumes them.

PM can be measured in several groups: large particles, coarse particles, fine and ultrafine (less than .1 of a micron). As a comparison, a human hair is 70 microns thick.

Ultra fine particles, shaped like linked circles, are more dangerous than larger particles because they are more freely passed through the nasal and lung defenses and attach onto the bottom of the lung. They also can enter the body through cells thus going directly into the bloodstream. Scientists believe that when the particles enter the bloodstream in this manner, heart problems result. The elements in ultrafine particles tend to be more chemically active and acidic.

Studies have determined that rotocraft, single-piston, turboprop, and turbojet planes emit ultrafine particle matter. The highest levels were generated by jet aircraft during idling and taxiing. Recent studies done on Santa Monica Airport pollution by independent researchers showed that toxicity levels exceed California standards. Scientists are still studying the health effects of ultrafine particles combined with other pollutants. PM levels are worst just east of the airport because of the sea breeze. In addition, ultrafine particles eventually condense into larger particles and can travel distances of 50-100 miles therefore contributing to pollution on a wide scale.

Another overlooked and understudied toxin wreaking havoc on our cells is de-icing fluid. At first thought, one wouldn’t think de-icing fluids would be an issue here in sunny southern Cal. However, planes arrive and depart from all over the US when they use SM Airport and even during summer months, the fluid is used on wing surfaces to go through cold and high altitude situations. As the toxin sheds from planes, it presents serious hazards to water tables, streams, lakes, oceans, water treatment plants and eventually finds its way into our drinking water.

In a lot of ways, the true catastrophes of jet pollution have yet to be fairly measured. Insufficient studies have been the reality so far. With all the money being made by the corporations and the airport as increases in jet traffic following 9/11 skyrocketed, who has the motivation to study environmental hazards? Certainly not the airport nor the FAA and certainly not the city of Santa Monica who together are most likely cashing in on pilot fines and closed door backroom deals.

The FAA, the governmental organization who is supposed to protect the airways in the best interests of the American public, is not only unresponsive and unsympathetic to the concerns of citizens, but demonstrates an abominable union with the interests of Big Business. The taxpayer funded FAA consistently supports airport expansion projects that serve profiteering entities without a second thought to the effects on the community.

Like its bureaucratic brother, the EPA, (the Environmental Protection Agency) is responsible for maintaining a safe and clean environment. However, the Administrator of the EPA is appointed by the U.S. president. Sound scary? Our current ‘president’ is well on his way to having the worst record on environmental issues in US history. Fraud, deception and pollution have become weekly events inside the EPA.

As the EPA is mirroring the activities of the White House, the most recent scandal includes the blatant LIE that both parties are caught in. The EPA and the White House knowingly lied to the public about the health hazards immediately following the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York City. (more on that in coming months)

Airports are under no regulations and need not report most emissions nor adhere to most Clean Air Act standards. The FAA does very little regulation and most often works in contrast to public health and interest. US ‘authorities’ do not have hard standards for the amount of pollution jets are allowed to spew into the air. Further, there’s no ongoing enforcement system for the weak standards that do exist.

The Bush regime handed out tax breaks to the very same corporations that are poisoning us. Adding insult to injury, the very same organizations that are funded by us to protect us are the very same organizations that are blatantly lying to us and benefiting by keeping us uninformed. Crimini! If we can’t trust the institutions our tax money bankrolls, what are we to do? With Bush Incorporated making decisions that are literally murdering people, WE, the American people have come to a crucial point in our existence. To sit back, turn on Fox War (I mean News) Channel, and pretend there is nothing one can do is to vote yes to a corporate fascist kleptocracy.

I wish to express gratitude to the website: http://home.earthlink.net/~jetairpollution which gave me much of the information used here. Please check out the site, become involved in protecting the health of yourself, everything you come into contact with and future generations.

Posted: Mon - September 1, 2003 at 04:29 PM          

©