The health impact of living in the vicinity of an airport has been of growing concern. The reduction of aircraft noise nuisance has been considered to be the main issue for a long time but in recent years, the question of air pollution around airports has been raised. Air pollution has been found to be associated with cardiovascular disease (Brook et al (2010)). As several studies have shown an association between aircraft noise exposure and hypertension (Babisch and van Kamp (2009)) or mortality from cardiovascular disease (Huss et al (2010), Hansell et al (2013)), concerns for disentangling the effects of air pollution and of noise on cardiovascular outcomes have increased. We performed an ecological study addressing the issue of an association between exposure to aircraft noise and mortality for cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction and stroke. A secondary aim was to examine if this association was modified when air pollution was taken into account. The study was based on 161 communes (the smallest administrative unit in France) close to three major French airports: Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Lyon Saint-Exupéry and Toulouse-Blagnac. The mortality data were provided by the French Center on Medical Causes of Death. Based on noise maps produced by the French Civil Aviation Authority with the 'Integrated Noise Model', a population-weighted average exposure to aircraft noise was computed at the commune level. The average air pollution exposure for both NO2 and PM10 indicators was estimated with dispersion modelling by Airparif institute for the Paris area, and by Air Rhône-Alpes institute for the Lyon area (data for the Toulouse area were missing). The average concentration in NO2 was estimated to 22.3 mg/m3, the average concentration in PM10 to 23.9 mg/m3 and the average exposure to aircraft noise to 49.6 dBA, as shown in Table 1. NO2 and PM10 concentrations were positively correlated. NO2 concentrations were moderately correlated to aircraft noise levels while PM10 concentrations were not. Regardless of aircraft noise, neither NO2 nor PM10 concentrations were significantly associated with mortality. However, positive associations were observed between exposure to aircraft noise and mortality for all causes of interest except stroke. These associations were not attenuated when air pollution was taken into account. The present study seems to confirm the findings of recent studies suggesting that air pollution does not appear to be a confounding factor in the relationship between aircraft noise and mortality from cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease and myocardial infarction. However, the potential for ecological bias and the possibility that this association could be due to unmeasured factors cannot be excluded. Further individual studies are necessary in order to better understand this association. This work was supported by funds from the French Ministry of Health, the French Ministry of Environment, and the French Civil Aviation Authority.