Studies show that communities with neighboring airports have higher rates of heart and lung disorders, cancer and death. La Guardia Airport admits that the aircraft flying over our homes drop fuel upon us.

Imagine the health hazards we in Middle Village/South Elmhurst are exposed to by the several hundred planes that are allowed to fly over us on an almost daily basis, with very few exceptions, for hour, after hour, after hour …

The Federal Aviation Administration (F.A.A.) is willing to expose us to an additional 15,000 plus of these polluting planes, per year, since permission has been granted to 3 airlines for slots at LaGuardia.

Major manufacturers are subject to clean air and toxic dumping guidelines. New York City has instituted “Quality of life” noise abatement laws. It is ironic that while you may be receiving a summons for your barking dog, a jet can roar over your head unchallenged, an annoying dog is not polluting your lungs nor exposing you to constant radar rays, which may be a possible cause for the high incidence of breast cancer in Queens.

The very profitable airline industry, the biggest polluter, is subject to no regulations and answers only to the F.A.A., whose job it is to promote the airline industry, and which seems to have sole and absolute power over “The not so friendly skies” above us.

According to the F.A.A. planes go where the FAA tells them and only where the FAA tells them. They put flight paths over a community and if they do not hear from its residents, that is where they remain.

It is time to tell the F.A.A. that they cannot pollute us with aircraft toxins nor destroy our peace and comfort in our homes with aircraft noise. We have never allowed any foreign government to destroy us in our homes, so why should we let the U.S. Government's F.A.A. do so? Who gave the F.A.A. this right?

Remember – the F.A.A. diverts aircraft each year for money-making events; such as the US Open. How fortunate that the winds are able to cooperate so well for those two weeks each year. Are we less important and more expendable than tennis pros and their fans? … Are we on the ground less important and more expendable than the flying public?
We are surrounded by water, so there is no need for them to come over our homes. In fact, they make quite a few turns, arcs, circles and snakelike moves to reach us.

It is felt that we can't fight the Federal Government because very few try. There are avenues, we are ready and willing to use these avenues. The ultimate price (sickness and/or death) far outweighs the economic benefit of these unregulated airlines' low fares.

We must “Wake up and smell the jet fuel”, and do something about it, before its too late. The black soot that coats our lawn furniture is also coating our lungs.