Jet Fuel Syndrome study released

[mickjoebill]

This study into Australian Airforce personnel also relates to others who have prolonged exposure to jetfuel, it shows "is there is evidence of small but persistent cellular damage,"
The report raises more questions than it has answers and the research field of the effects of jetfuel on human cells is considered by pundits on the radio today, as being in its infancy.


RAAF personnel who worked with jet fuel suffered damage to cells with unknown long-term consequences, groundbreaking research says - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The research was commissioned to investigate why some people who worked on the deseal/reseal project on F111 aircraft, "suffered significant health impacts — such as depression, anxiety, erectile dysfunction, memory loss, skin conditions, gastro-intestinal problems and an increased risk of cancer — while others did not".

Solvents were thought to be a potential cause but in ground breaking research jetful was found to be more toxic.

[Ian W]

From the paper

Additionally, the research hypothesised that people with inherited defects in their mitochondria might be at more risk than others.

and

However, it is possible the effects of the cell damage could in fact be passed down to offspring through "epigenetic" means, whereby the genes are altered by outside influences, such as fuel toxicity.
"Some epigenetic changes can be transferred down through successive generations but currently have not been shown to cause birth defects or mutation in offspring," the report said.

This epigenetic transfer of damage from the parents to the children could explain the way some flight crew are affected badly and others not at all. Mitochondrial damage may not be so easy to identify as DNA damage.

Note that it does not have to be organophosphate it might just be just jet fuel fumes and straight jet A fumes are far more likely to be encountered in an aircraft. It would be interesting to see if the effect is increased by long periods at 8000ft pressure altitude.

[ELaw]

The research was commissioned to investigate why some people who worked on the deseal/reseal project on F111 aircraft, "suffered significant health impacts — such as depression, anxiety, erectile dysfunction, memory loss, skin conditions, gastro-intestinal problems and an increased risk of cancer — while others did not".

Maybe because in *any* random sample of people, some will suffer significant health impacts such as depression, anxiety, erectile dysfunction, memory loss, skin conditions, gastro-intestinal problems and cancer, while others will not?

[YRP]

If you are going to start yet another thread into which you post from multiple user accounts, you need to learn to vary the writing style to make it less obvious that it is the same person.