PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - BA's in-flight safety chief warns about toxic cabin fumes
Old 24th Jan 2017, 19:49
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Mac the Knife

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Well, I've re-read the report that Widger cites: https://cot.food.gov.uk/sites/defaul...t/cotstate.pdf
(I've read it before, when the same subject came up previously)

The conclusion (and please read all 113 pages of it before sounding off) is that there is no evidence that occasional exposure to low levels of organophosphates leads to any measurable cognitive impairment, dementia or increased risk of suicide. And there are many many studies.

Cabin fume events do occur, as we all know. How many of these lead to exposure to low levels of organophosphates is unknown, but what evidence there is, suggests not very many. But it is of course impossible to prove a negative case.

As the late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said, everybody's entitled to their own opinions, but they're not entitled to their own facts.

Even if they are called "alternative facts."


[and in case you wonder why a lowly surgeon should have any standing to add his two-bits, it is because he has spent rather a large part of his life in operating theatres, where fume events, both noticeable and unnoticeable are far from uncommon - so he does have a dog in the race]
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