News
Fume Event Now Considered "BIO HAZARD" In CanadaCabin Air Quality and “Fume Events” Update Occupation Health and Safety - Newsletter #01 January 11, 2012 Fellow pilots, Over time, the OHS Committees of ACPA have received progressively more reports and information related to “fumes events.” In view of the information available to us, we think that some clarification is required with respect to the following: The possible sources of “fumes”; The contents of “fumes”; The potential health effects for pilots and other aircraft occupants exposed to fumes; and The QRH checklists available to us and the importance of donning masks and landing ASAP as per the QRH when the situation warrants.
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Inhalable Toxic Chemicals in Aircraft Cabin Air
The Workshop "Inhalable Toxic Chemicals in Aircraft Cabin Air" (ITCOBA), held on 11
Cranfield University Seminar Press Release October 2011 at Cranfield University, was organized in order to respond to the disinformation that has increasingly surrounded the issue of whether aircraft cabin air is contaminated with organophosphate neurotoxins, and whether those substances caused ill-health. The issue has most recently been brought into focus by the publication earlier this year, by the UK Department of Transport, of the "Aircraft Cabin Air Sampling Study" reporting work carried out by the Institute of Environment and Health at Cranfield University. This report actually found significant concentrations of organophosphate neurotoxins and other noxious substances in cabin air even under normal flying conditions. Unfortunately, the final conclusion of the report is the statement: "With respect to the conditions of flight that were experienced during the study, there was no evidence for target pollutants occurring in the cabin at levels exceeding available health and safety standards and guidelines." The first phrase underlines the fact that the study failed to achieve measurement of a "fume event", even though that was one of its principal objectives. Even for "normal flying conditions" the purported conclusion is irrelevant because no standards are available for some of the most problematical substances. Nevertheless, despite the fact that this "conclusion" is neither sound nor justified by the actual work carried out, it has been carelessly and uncritically quoted, including by the UK Minister for Transport Theresa Villiers, and widely used to infer that there is no safety and health problem.
Boeing suit settlementBoeing suit settlement stirs jetliner air safety debateDocuments show firm long concerned about health risks of rare fume events
 Terry Williams, left, a former American Airlines flight attendant, listens to her attorney, Alisa Brodkowitz, in Seattle. The Boeing Co. has settled her lawsuit claiming faulty aircraft design released toxic fumes into an airplane's cabin, leaving her unable to work.
 msnbc.com
SEATTLE — A former flight attendant is believed to be the first person in the U.S. to settle a lawsuit against the Boeing Co. over what she claims is faulty aircraft design that allowed toxic fumes to reach the cabin, triggering tremors, memory loss and severe headaches. The amount and other details of the settlement Wednesday between former American Airlines worker Terry Williams, a 42-year-old mother of two, and Boeing were not made public as a condition of the agreement. But 250,000 pages of company documents turned over to the plaintiff's legal team by Boeing seem certain to fuel the long-running battle over the safety of cabin air in commercial jetliners. "The issue is really heating up now," Judith Murawski, a Seattle-area based industrial hygienist for the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, told msnbc.com, adding that she typically handles at least three new cases a week involving crew members exposed to fumes. Many calls come from crew members on their way to emergency rooms or urgent care clinics, she said. On at least one U.S.-registered commercial jetliner a day — out of approximately 28,000 flights — pilots, flight attendants and passengers are exposed to toxic smoke or fumes entering the plane's air conditioning system, say industry officials. And the documented incidents of contaminated air, which can contain tricresyl phosphates (TCPs), carbon monoxide and other toxic components, may not cover all the exposures. Boeing and the airline industry have long maintained that cabin air — compressed air pumped, or "bled," from the plane's engine — is safe, saying such breaches are extremely rare and that short-term exposure to the tiny amounts of toxic substances in the cabin air poses no health risk.
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US Airways crew members file lawsuit over fumesUS Airways crew members file lawsuit over fumes / Nby RICHARD DEVAYNEewsChannel 36 Bio | This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it | Follow: @richardwcncWCNC.com Posted on April 13, 2011 at 5:25 PM CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Sixteen US Airways crew members have filed a lawsuit against an airline maintenance company, claiming the company failed to adequately do its job. Aerotoxic Syndrome02 Mar Aerotoxic Syndrome: The best kept secret in aviation?Author: Alisa Brodkowitz | Category: Fumes . Reprinted and written by: The Scavenger Passengers getting off airline flights often experience ‘jet lag’ which is clearly due to changing time zones but many may also experience long-term serious ill health after certain ‘fume event’ flights but will never understand the simple cause. Captain John Hoyte explains the phenomenon known as ‘Aerotoxic Syndrome’. Three scientists from North America, France and Australia termed this neurological illness ‘Aerotoxic Syndrome’ in 1999 but passengers are mostly still unaware that it is caused by breathing toxic cabin air in-flight. As an airline pilot, I experienced serious neurological problems in 1990 after I started to fly the BAe 146 four-engined jet on ‘night freight flying’. It left me with Alzheimer’s-type symptoms of chronic fatigue, failing memory, slurred / incoherent speech, poor thought-processing, vision disturbances and countless other mysterious symptoms – not desirable when flying airliners. I was a very fit young man and I carried on flying. As there are always two pilots in a modern jet I was able to mask it by using checklists and other coping devices, so keeping it quiet out of fear of losing my job. By 1998 I had become certain that the ‘night’ aspect of my flying was responsible, so I logically transferred to day time passenger flying. Initially I felt better but would still be troubled by the same symptoms which left me exhausted and feeling intoxicated all of the time. However, I had long since restricted my alcohol intake, as it would quickly send me ‘over the top’. By 2004/5 and aged 50 I was ready to stop flying as my memory was failing and I felt as though I was going to kill not only myself, but take around 100 passengers and crew with me. In mid 2005 I had to suddenly stop flying, confused, sick and exhausted. In early 2006 I was grounded with ‘chronic stress’ by expert aviation doctors. A matter of months later I was tested along with 26 other BALPA union pilots and found out we all had highly abnormal blood / fat results but more importantly, measurable sub-normal memories and cognitive dysfunction. How could jet engine oil be found in my blood and fat? Might it be responsible for the ill health I had learnt to live with but had wrecked my life? One essential fact is that aircrew, pilots and cabin crew breathe the same air as their passengers. This includes royalty, low cost passengers, politicians and even doctors. Engine oil and OPs How might the engine oil have got into my body? In the early years of jet flying, the Boeing 707 for example had mechanically compressed air pumped into the confines of the fuselage to create the pressure and oxygen content necessary to sustain life at high altitude of jet flying. But in around 1963 Boeing design engineers discovered that they could use the excess compressed air from a jet engine, taken off the engine prior to the fuel being mixed. This air is called ‘bleed air’ as it is bled off the engine. It is piped, unfiltered into the passenger cabin and is done so to this day. The engineers of the day warned that if the bleed air should mix with the oil in the engine, it would convey not pure outside air, but an oil / air mixture into the passenger compartment. Unsurprisingly, the risk was thought negligible and the accountants won the day; it was clearly a simpler system and saved money, yet had an obvious flaw. In each jet engine seals keep the air and oil apart. However, what aircraft manufacturers will not tell you is that the oil seals wear out, allowing the oil and air to mix.
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