Situational Awareness; Workload; Confusion; Distraction
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Chart Or Publication; Human Factors
The NOTAMs in some cities have become so erroneous that I am concerned they are being neglected as a whole by many crewmembers. It is rare that I will fly with a pilot who reads the NOTAMs for our flight. When I read them; I frequently hear the comment; 'You actually read that stuff.'  When reading the NOTAMs; I can understand why they are being neglected by so many of my fellow crewmembers as a large number of them are outdated or unnecessary at many of the airports we fly to. IAH is an excellent example.I had a [single leg] flight from IAH two weeks ago with over 80 pages of NOTAMs. The IAH NOTAMs still include NOTAMs for arrival procedures that no longer exist; such as the TXMEX arrival. That TXMEX NOTAM was in our paperwork for years; to cross TXMEX at 12;000 FT; instead of the altitude on the chart. This chart could have simply been revised to reflect the proper altitude and the NOTAM eliminated. There are numerous similar NOTAMs for current procedures that should result in chart changes; so as to eliminate the NOTAM and reflect the proper procedure on the chart. Instead; these NOTAMs have effective dates on them through 2015; such as the arrivals into IAH instructing you to descend at 280 KTS in the transition. Why would this remain a NOTAM through 2015; instead of being revised on the chart?There are also duplicate NOTAMs; such as FDC 04/6220 and FDC 04/5737; both instructing the same changes in altitudes to the same procedure.The examples above merely scratch the surface. In total; I found 64 NOTAMs in IAH alone that either contain duplicate information; information that has already been corrected on the chart; information that simply should be revised on the chart so the NOTAM can be eliminated; or information for procedures that no longer exist. Eliminating these would get rid of roughly half of the pages of NOTAMs for IAH.
A B737 First Officer addressed the excessive proliferation and validity of NOTAMs; citing; among others: redundancy; outdated; excessive numbers and long term dependence on NOTAM changes to procedures instead of revising charts in a timely fashion.