Reasons not to apply for emirates airlines

[Doc Jekyll]

Health hazards: why not to join Emirates

There are a lot of reasons, why not to join Emirates or any other Gulf Airline. Some of them are controversial like the pilots' nag-nag-nag, others are evident.

The absolute no go, however, which has never been explicitly mentioned in this forum so far, is the exposure to health risks. Yes, it depends on where you are coming from and it could be that you are coming from a place which is even less healthy.

But consider this:
Emirates is fully aware of all the serious health-problems which are related to air-conditioning ducts which are overgrown with fungi – they just sweep it under the carpet.

At one stage I had enough, when my central air-conditioning unit started to fail at decreasing intervals and the maintenance guys continued to tell me that I just have to shut it down for de-icing.
Completely fed-up, I took the ladder and climbed into the ceiling with a flashlight where the Indians used to crawl in. Before my eyes adapted to the dark, I realised that my arms and elbows immediately started to itch. When I could see something, I noted that the whole duct, the electric motor and the heat-exchanger were covered in mould and fungi. There was this huge whitish mushroom mixed with ice which blocked the airflow and, after the ice melted, the fungus was still there, alive and kicking.
So I got a spatula, scraped off a huge amount of all this skin-irritating crap and brought it to the clinic. The doctor was very helpful and sent it to the lab for analysis. You can imagine what this stuff does to your lungs if you get a skin-rash from it within half a minute.

Three days later, the clinic received a report which stated that about a dozen types of fungi had been identified but that the lab would need another sample in order to be able to identify the rest of them. I also received a letter from the clinic for the accommodation department which strongly recommended to move me out of that villa.

At home I googled some of the scientific names and was flabbergasted to read about all the effects of continuous spore-inhalation. It read like a compilation of all the problems my family and friends in Dubai were complaining about, starting with chronic exhaustion, nota bene. These little cells, or should I say creatures, grow in your body, folks, and they cause anything from chronic respiratory problems over arthritis (feel the pain in the joints?) to cancer. They can grow in your alveoli, in your sinuses, on your cornea and in your blood.

You guys who are still there must know that mysterious cough which is being treated by the clinic with anti-biotics but does not go away for weeks.

I hear the guys who say that air-conditioning ducts can be cleaned by specialised companies, using robots and the lot. True, but these spores are of microscopic size and you are deceiving yourself if you think you have a clean duct after having spent from AED 5000 upwards. The fungi will start to re-grow immediately. Chemicals? Not really an option, is it? One should not try to exorcise the devil by engaging Belzebub. Or would you really want to inhale an aerosol of something which the maintenance guy brings in his filthy jerry-can (probably forbidden by the Geneva-convention )? Or trust something which says ‘ecologically hazardless” on it? Why would the fungi die then? On the long run, they will re-grow anyway – they love it in there.

If you are young and can afford to toss a couple of years of life-expectancy – go ahead and have fun on the big birds. Just bear in mind that first officers without children live in towers, some of which are already, and all of which will be covered in mould and you don’t even have a chance to get the ducts cleaned with your own funds. It would be herculean, and, by the way, most windows cannot even be opened to get some ‘fresh’ air into your flat.

Ever thought of the composition of the smog when you hit the ****topause at 10’000 feet? They make fuzz in my country over the elevated content of micro-particles and ozone of the air during summer.
You got that all year around in Dubai. Deduct the unfiltered diesel-exhaust from trucks, diggers and TATA-buses and still you inhale air containing an amount of sand and poisonous particles which exceeds x-fold the alarm level in countries with decent ecological awareness. It’s gonna take decades to get that out of your lungs again. It’s true that you have that in many other big cities, but it all adds up.

Certainly you don’t want to expose your wife and kids to such health-hazards because, unlike you, they have to stay there all the time. I have been talking only about the fungi spores for now. Consider also the funny germs imported from Asia and Africa which rapidly spread and are evenly distributed 24/7 through the schools’ air-conditioning system. Poor kids. Some strains were thought to be practically extinct in the West, like streptococcus type A who prospers in the UAE (yes, we contracted it). Start to think about it when you next inhale the foul and moist air of a duct while wandering about the fancy shopping malls.

Did you know they still have fresh-water pipes made from asbestos in use in Jumeirah?

And last but not least:
do you want to let your kids play in one of those germ-incubators aka ‘cooled’ swimming pools? If they are ok from a bacteriological point of view, it means that they are full of heavy chemicals. Swim in the sea alternatively? Then check the dung which goes into Jumeirah beach, even when the sewage treatment plants are working - check out the pipe at the DOSC or have a look at the colour of the water after taking off from 30.
Oh no, it’s not human faeces, it’s red tide! Right! I just wonder what these interesting little cells are feeding on. Fertiliser, probably.

Not all people react the same, but there is no doubt that this problem is quite serious.

So, do your own and your family’s health a favour:

If you can, move out.
If you can’t leave, move your family out.
If you don’t need to, don’t go to live there.