Seat 62K,
Oil fumes are known to occur in two seperate and different situations:
1) Oil fumes are frequently noticed on main engine or APU start - the 146 often fills with visible oil fumes after a cold APU start, for example. These are often referred to as 'normal'.
2) Oil fumes also occur after an engine oil seal malfunction in flight; these are clearly 'abnormal'.
However oil fumes are oil fumes - whatever causes them and means that many 'normal' exposures can be experienced by aircrew and passengers alike.
If only the Department of Transport would be kind enough to tell people exactly what is in these visible oil fumes, they might then begin to realise that breathing multiple 'normal' doses of oil fumes causes serious ill health - for some people who have the genetic make up to be vulnerable to such extremely toxic chemicals.
DB
