Hi, Caleb,

      From looking at aviation websites, I see that pilots and aviation fans have a lot of excitement about flying.  It certainly takes courage and a lot of skill to fly an airplane. My father graduated as an aeronautical engineer. We lived near O’Hare airport and went there to see planes take off and land.

     It’s only in recent years that the environmental impacts of flying have become clear.  Since thousands of people live near the island airport, some of us did research on the consequences to health of living near an airport.

     A study done by the town where I grew up showed the cancer risk to be significantly elevated within a 30-mile radius of O’Hare Airport.  Since I lived and went to school much closer than that, I wondered if the cancer I contracted had its origin there.  It’s not really about hating aviation.

 Brenda from CommunityAIR