Skylark
10th May 2000, 08:39
The advertisement was unequivocal. Alongside a panoramic picture of a
sunrise from an aeroplane window, it boasted that the air on board
United Airlines' jets was the freshest available.
Anne Lewis, a primary school teacher, was sceptical and complained about
the airline's claim. She knew from past experience that cabin air was
often recycled, low on oxygen and could be a conduit for spreading
disease.
Her concerns stem from a £1,200 family holiday to the Italian ski resort
of La Thuile. As she boarded the Britannia flight with her husband and
two children, one passenger was suffering from a winter bug. By the time
the plane arrived in Turin, more than 70 passengers had been unknowingly
infected. Just hours after they ventured out onto the Alpine slopes,
Lewis and her family started succumbing one by one to the illness.
"It caused vomiting, severe pain in the kidneys and a blinding
headache," said Lewis. "We later found out the person carrying this bug
was sitting in row 10, but most of the people who were ill were at the
back of the plane."
Lewis believes the ventilation system was most likely responsible for
spreading the bug - although this is disputed by Britannia. Lewis is
among a growing number of passengers and cabin crew who are beginning to
question the health risks from flying.
Her complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority was upheld in
February after United Airlines failed to justify its claim that its air
was the freshest in the industry. "This is an artificial environment
which the airlines don't want you to know about," said Lewis, who lives
near Newark in Nottinghamshire.
Regulatory bodies such as the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), and the
airlines, have tried to allay passengers' anxieties. They say many of
the complaints about health risks - from bacteria re-circulating in
cabin air to pilots shutting down ventilation systems to save fuel - are
unfounded.
The Sunday Times, however, last week obtained research and confidential
industry documents which raise doubts over those assurances. They
include:
Medical reports on cabin staff on Boeing 777s who have complained of
nausea, dizziness and nosebleeds. Many have had to be given oxygen
during the flight, and British Airways is among a number of airlines
that have launched secret safety investigations.
New research, which reveals how aircraft filters fail to stop viruses
after becoming clogged with mould and fungus. Swabs taken in the
passenger cabins of some planes found 51,000 micro-organisms in a 4in
square - more than the number you would find on the door handle of an
office lavatory.
Internal documents that reveal an auxiliary power unit used on planes,
including the Boeing 737, has had a history of oil leaks. These have
contaminated the cabin air in some planes with toxic vapours.
Advice given to pilots to switch off the ventilation units - causing
oxygen levels to fall - to save money on fuel.
The House of Lords science and technology committee is now examining the
potential health hazards of the cabin environment.
It is expected GPs will be advised to give more warnings to patients
about air travel, but have some dangers been ignored for too long?
AT 40,000ft with a club soda in one hand and a film playing on the
in-flight entertainment system, you might feel relaxed. The downside is,
if your health is already poor, you might not even survive the flight.
While the surrounding atmosphere may seem normal, the cabin air is
actually equivalent to being 8,000ft up a mountain. You have 20% less
oxygen and even the airline's medical advisers admit a heart patient can
be tipped into "a crisis phase".
The cramped conditions of long-haul flights have been blamed for causing
potentially fatal blood clots. Farrol Kahn, of the Oxford-based Aviation
Health Institute, believes that of 20,000 deaths a year in Britain from
blood clots on the lung, up to a third may be related to air travel.
Even for a passenger in perfect health, the environment is far from
conducive. Only about 50% of the cabin air is drawn from outside the
plane - the rest is recycled. It is a significant economy, because fresh
air has to be heated from -50C before it can be pumped into the cabin.
In economy class, passengers may be getting only seven cubic feet a
minute of fresh air compared with the pilots' 150 cubic feet a minute
and about 50 for first-class passengers.
Worse, if someone is suffering a fatal disease, such as tuberculosis,
and is seated even 30 rows away there is a risk you could catch it. The
danger is that bacteria, instead of being expelled from the plane, may
be recycled through the air conditioning.
The CAA, which was among the expert groups giving evidence to the House
of Lords committee last week, recommends that passengers with health
problems seek advice before travelling, but it is largely dismissive of
many of the supposed hazards.
It says there is "little research or knowledge" linking blood clots with
air travel. It also maintains that the airlines comply with tight
regulations on the amount of fresh air supplied to cabins and denies
ventilation units may infect passengers. "There's no evidence recycled
air spreads disease," said Jonathan Nicholson, of the CAA. "The filters
in air cabins stop everything, even viruses. You catch diseases on a
plane purely from one-to-one contact."
Despite the CAA's assurances, it emerged last week that British Airways
is among a number of airlines investigating reports of adverse symptoms
suffered by cabin staff working on Boeing 777s.
"Nine times out of 10 that I go on that plane, I suffer some side
effects," said one stewardess. "I usually get headaches, a dizzy spell
and feel I can't breathe properly. Often on a flight the cabin staff
will be on extra oxygen."
Other staff have complained of nosebleeds, periods of confusion or
disorientation and nausea. They have been told for months by British
Airways that the matter is being dealt with "urgently", but until
inquiries were made by The Sunday Times last week the safety
investigation was not even made public.
The CAA's assurances over air-conditioning units are also being
questioned. "Viruses can certainly pass through air filters on planes,"
said Harriet Burge, professor of environmental microbiology at the
Harvard School of Public Health in America, who has carried out tests on
aircraft.
"There can be a movement of air from the front to the back of the plane
which can carry pathogens. The problem is there is very little
research."
In one investigation, air filters in various aircraft, including
transatlantic jets, were found to have become clogged with fungus and
moulds, so rendering them ineffective.
"Some of these filters are probably creating a greater biological hazard
than they are taking out of the air," said John Moorehead, of the
Battelle Memorial Institute, an Ohio-based research body.
Swabs taken from 10 locations on four different aircraft revealed counts
of micro-organisms higher than you would expect to find on the floor of
a shower room.
Among the organisms detected were aspergillus, which can cause lung
infections and kill people with weak immune systems, and bacillus
cereus, which is associated with food poisoning.
Airlines insist they change their air filters regularly to ensure they
operate efficiently, but the dangers of ventilation units spreading
disease comes as no surprise to Rhoda Macdonald, a television producer.
When she boarded a flight to New York there was, unbeknown to her, a
21-year-old Liberian woman with tuberculosis 15 rows away. Six weeks
later, she was contacted by her travel agency and warned of the risk of
infection.
She discovered she was infected but had treatment that prevented the
disease from developing.
"They recycle air to save money, but it's at the expense of safety,"
said Macdonald. "I'm convinced I was infected through the ventilation
system. They ask if you packed your own bags before you board, but they
don't ask if you've got a deadly disease."
Even if, as the airlines insist, the ventilation systems do block
viruses and bacteria, there can be other dangers. Passengers and crew on
some aircraft have been poisoned by organophosphates from oil or
hydraulic fluids leaking into the air-conditioning system.
Two widely used planes - the British Aerospace 146 and the McDonnell
Douglas MD-80 - are both alleged to have suffered problems. Pilots and
crews in America and Australia are claiming compensation for long-term
damage to their nervous systems.
Documents obtained by The Sunday Times suggest oil vapours contaminating
cabins may be even more widespread. They reveal that an auxiliary power
unit manufactured by AlliedSignal and used on several planes, including
Boeing 737s, has suffered a series of problems, though none has been
publicised.
"Reports of oil leaks and smoke or odour in cabins increased in the
1990s," reveal the documents. A spokesman for the manufacturer said last
week it did not believe its power units were responsible for any
"injurious airborne contamination".
FOR Kahn, the health risks from flying have been overlooked, even though
as many people die in-flight each year as they do in crashes. He says
the industry has failed to fund proper research. Kahn believes regular
fliers may also be at risk from higher radiation at high altitude.
His stance is backed by employee organisations. "People are increasingly
walking off aircraft feeling a lot worse than when they got on and it's
becoming accepted as the norm," said Shane Enright, of the International
Transport Workers' Federation.
While campaigners are demanding better standards, there are fears the
industry may adopt further money-saving schemes that could pose even
more health problems. In America, a proposal has been put forward to cut
the amount of fresh air pumped into cabins to five cubic feet of fresh
air per minute, which would mean up to 75% of the cabin air would be
recirculated.
Several airlines are suspected of already reducing the oxygen in the
cabin further by shutting down air-conditioning units during part of the
flight to save fuel. One United Airlines document says "a [ventilation]
pack shutdown can reduce fuel burn".
United Airlines says pilots would never shut down ventilation packs to
save money, but unions are now lobbying regulatory organisations in
Europe and America to ensure air-quality standards are improved.
Passengers such as Anne Lewis simply want a clear explanation of what
the risks are. "Maybe what happened to us was a fault with the
ventilation system, but if it wasn't, where is the protection for your
family? I just hope the House of Lords inquiry will find some of the
answers."
How passengers get ill :
1. Fresh air is taken in through the jet engines. It is compressed and
heated before entering the cabin. In some cases it can become
contaminated with toxic vapours from oils and hydraulic fluids
2. Half the air is re-circulated after it has been through the cabin.
There is a risk airborne bacteria and viruses may not be caught by the
filters which recycle the air
3. A passenger at the rear of the aircraft is likely to have less oxygen
and may be more at risk from bacteria from other passengers
4. Pilots are given only fresh air and have up to 150 cubic feet per
minute, compared to passengers in economy class who may get as little as
seven cubic feet per minute
5. The cabin atmosphere has 20% less oxygen than air at sea level
because it is pressurised to the equivalent of being at an altitude of
6,000 feet. This ensures less of a pressure differential between the
inside of the cabin and outside of the plane
6. Radiation: The thinner atmosphere at altitude creates a greater risk
of radiation from the sun. A frequent flyer on long-haul routes may be
getting the equivalent of more than 100 X-rays a year.
© THE LONDON SUNDAY TIMES : SUNDAY, 7th MAY 2000.
sunrise from an aeroplane window, it boasted that the air on board
United Airlines' jets was the freshest available.
Anne Lewis, a primary school teacher, was sceptical and complained about
the airline's claim. She knew from past experience that cabin air was
often recycled, low on oxygen and could be a conduit for spreading
disease.
Her concerns stem from a £1,200 family holiday to the Italian ski resort
of La Thuile. As she boarded the Britannia flight with her husband and
two children, one passenger was suffering from a winter bug. By the time
the plane arrived in Turin, more than 70 passengers had been unknowingly
infected. Just hours after they ventured out onto the Alpine slopes,
Lewis and her family started succumbing one by one to the illness.
"It caused vomiting, severe pain in the kidneys and a blinding
headache," said Lewis. "We later found out the person carrying this bug
was sitting in row 10, but most of the people who were ill were at the
back of the plane."
Lewis believes the ventilation system was most likely responsible for
spreading the bug - although this is disputed by Britannia. Lewis is
among a growing number of passengers and cabin crew who are beginning to
question the health risks from flying.
Her complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority was upheld in
February after United Airlines failed to justify its claim that its air
was the freshest in the industry. "This is an artificial environment
which the airlines don't want you to know about," said Lewis, who lives
near Newark in Nottinghamshire.
Regulatory bodies such as the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), and the
airlines, have tried to allay passengers' anxieties. They say many of
the complaints about health risks - from bacteria re-circulating in
cabin air to pilots shutting down ventilation systems to save fuel - are
unfounded.
The Sunday Times, however, last week obtained research and confidential
industry documents which raise doubts over those assurances. They
include:
Medical reports on cabin staff on Boeing 777s who have complained of
nausea, dizziness and nosebleeds. Many have had to be given oxygen
during the flight, and British Airways is among a number of airlines
that have launched secret safety investigations.
New research, which reveals how aircraft filters fail to stop viruses
after becoming clogged with mould and fungus. Swabs taken in the
passenger cabins of some planes found 51,000 micro-organisms in a 4in
square - more than the number you would find on the door handle of an
office lavatory.
Internal documents that reveal an auxiliary power unit used on planes,
including the Boeing 737, has had a history of oil leaks. These have
contaminated the cabin air in some planes with toxic vapours.
Advice given to pilots to switch off the ventilation units - causing
oxygen levels to fall - to save money on fuel.
The House of Lords science and technology committee is now examining the
potential health hazards of the cabin environment.
It is expected GPs will be advised to give more warnings to patients
about air travel, but have some dangers been ignored for too long?
AT 40,000ft with a club soda in one hand and a film playing on the
in-flight entertainment system, you might feel relaxed. The downside is,
if your health is already poor, you might not even survive the flight.
While the surrounding atmosphere may seem normal, the cabin air is
actually equivalent to being 8,000ft up a mountain. You have 20% less
oxygen and even the airline's medical advisers admit a heart patient can
be tipped into "a crisis phase".
The cramped conditions of long-haul flights have been blamed for causing
potentially fatal blood clots. Farrol Kahn, of the Oxford-based Aviation
Health Institute, believes that of 20,000 deaths a year in Britain from
blood clots on the lung, up to a third may be related to air travel.
Even for a passenger in perfect health, the environment is far from
conducive. Only about 50% of the cabin air is drawn from outside the
plane - the rest is recycled. It is a significant economy, because fresh
air has to be heated from -50C before it can be pumped into the cabin.
In economy class, passengers may be getting only seven cubic feet a
minute of fresh air compared with the pilots' 150 cubic feet a minute
and about 50 for first-class passengers.
Worse, if someone is suffering a fatal disease, such as tuberculosis,
and is seated even 30 rows away there is a risk you could catch it. The
danger is that bacteria, instead of being expelled from the plane, may
be recycled through the air conditioning.
The CAA, which was among the expert groups giving evidence to the House
of Lords committee last week, recommends that passengers with health
problems seek advice before travelling, but it is largely dismissive of
many of the supposed hazards.
It says there is "little research or knowledge" linking blood clots with
air travel. It also maintains that the airlines comply with tight
regulations on the amount of fresh air supplied to cabins and denies
ventilation units may infect passengers. "There's no evidence recycled
air spreads disease," said Jonathan Nicholson, of the CAA. "The filters
in air cabins stop everything, even viruses. You catch diseases on a
plane purely from one-to-one contact."
Despite the CAA's assurances, it emerged last week that British Airways
is among a number of airlines investigating reports of adverse symptoms
suffered by cabin staff working on Boeing 777s.
"Nine times out of 10 that I go on that plane, I suffer some side
effects," said one stewardess. "I usually get headaches, a dizzy spell
and feel I can't breathe properly. Often on a flight the cabin staff
will be on extra oxygen."
Other staff have complained of nosebleeds, periods of confusion or
disorientation and nausea. They have been told for months by British
Airways that the matter is being dealt with "urgently", but until
inquiries were made by The Sunday Times last week the safety
investigation was not even made public.
The CAA's assurances over air-conditioning units are also being
questioned. "Viruses can certainly pass through air filters on planes,"
said Harriet Burge, professor of environmental microbiology at the
Harvard School of Public Health in America, who has carried out tests on
aircraft.
"There can be a movement of air from the front to the back of the plane
which can carry pathogens. The problem is there is very little
research."
In one investigation, air filters in various aircraft, including
transatlantic jets, were found to have become clogged with fungus and
moulds, so rendering them ineffective.
"Some of these filters are probably creating a greater biological hazard
than they are taking out of the air," said John Moorehead, of the
Battelle Memorial Institute, an Ohio-based research body.
Swabs taken from 10 locations on four different aircraft revealed counts
of micro-organisms higher than you would expect to find on the floor of
a shower room.
Among the organisms detected were aspergillus, which can cause lung
infections and kill people with weak immune systems, and bacillus
cereus, which is associated with food poisoning.
Airlines insist they change their air filters regularly to ensure they
operate efficiently, but the dangers of ventilation units spreading
disease comes as no surprise to Rhoda Macdonald, a television producer.
When she boarded a flight to New York there was, unbeknown to her, a
21-year-old Liberian woman with tuberculosis 15 rows away. Six weeks
later, she was contacted by her travel agency and warned of the risk of
infection.
She discovered she was infected but had treatment that prevented the
disease from developing.
"They recycle air to save money, but it's at the expense of safety,"
said Macdonald. "I'm convinced I was infected through the ventilation
system. They ask if you packed your own bags before you board, but they
don't ask if you've got a deadly disease."
Even if, as the airlines insist, the ventilation systems do block
viruses and bacteria, there can be other dangers. Passengers and crew on
some aircraft have been poisoned by organophosphates from oil or
hydraulic fluids leaking into the air-conditioning system.
Two widely used planes - the British Aerospace 146 and the McDonnell
Douglas MD-80 - are both alleged to have suffered problems. Pilots and
crews in America and Australia are claiming compensation for long-term
damage to their nervous systems.
Documents obtained by The Sunday Times suggest oil vapours contaminating
cabins may be even more widespread. They reveal that an auxiliary power
unit manufactured by AlliedSignal and used on several planes, including
Boeing 737s, has suffered a series of problems, though none has been
publicised.
"Reports of oil leaks and smoke or odour in cabins increased in the
1990s," reveal the documents. A spokesman for the manufacturer said last
week it did not believe its power units were responsible for any
"injurious airborne contamination".
FOR Kahn, the health risks from flying have been overlooked, even though
as many people die in-flight each year as they do in crashes. He says
the industry has failed to fund proper research. Kahn believes regular
fliers may also be at risk from higher radiation at high altitude.
His stance is backed by employee organisations. "People are increasingly
walking off aircraft feeling a lot worse than when they got on and it's
becoming accepted as the norm," said Shane Enright, of the International
Transport Workers' Federation.
While campaigners are demanding better standards, there are fears the
industry may adopt further money-saving schemes that could pose even
more health problems. In America, a proposal has been put forward to cut
the amount of fresh air pumped into cabins to five cubic feet of fresh
air per minute, which would mean up to 75% of the cabin air would be
recirculated.
Several airlines are suspected of already reducing the oxygen in the
cabin further by shutting down air-conditioning units during part of the
flight to save fuel. One United Airlines document says "a [ventilation]
pack shutdown can reduce fuel burn".
United Airlines says pilots would never shut down ventilation packs to
save money, but unions are now lobbying regulatory organisations in
Europe and America to ensure air-quality standards are improved.
Passengers such as Anne Lewis simply want a clear explanation of what
the risks are. "Maybe what happened to us was a fault with the
ventilation system, but if it wasn't, where is the protection for your
family? I just hope the House of Lords inquiry will find some of the
answers."
How passengers get ill :
1. Fresh air is taken in through the jet engines. It is compressed and
heated before entering the cabin. In some cases it can become
contaminated with toxic vapours from oils and hydraulic fluids
2. Half the air is re-circulated after it has been through the cabin.
There is a risk airborne bacteria and viruses may not be caught by the
filters which recycle the air
3. A passenger at the rear of the aircraft is likely to have less oxygen
and may be more at risk from bacteria from other passengers
4. Pilots are given only fresh air and have up to 150 cubic feet per
minute, compared to passengers in economy class who may get as little as
seven cubic feet per minute
5. The cabin atmosphere has 20% less oxygen than air at sea level
because it is pressurised to the equivalent of being at an altitude of
6,000 feet. This ensures less of a pressure differential between the
inside of the cabin and outside of the plane
6. Radiation: The thinner atmosphere at altitude creates a greater risk
of radiation from the sun. A frequent flyer on long-haul routes may be
getting the equivalent of more than 100 X-rays a year.
© THE LONDON SUNDAY TIMES : SUNDAY, 7th MAY 2000.