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Contaminated Airplane Cabins

Flying across country shouldn’t make you sick. But some people do get ill, and researchers are now looking into whether engine fumes are to blame.

Airline crews as well as passengers have reported symptoms such as chronic fatigue, sleeplessness, cognitive problems and memory loss following exposure to fumes that sometimes leak into airline cabins. Carbon monoxide and organophosphates, found in hydraulic fluids and engine oils, are the chief suspects. Around the world, airline pilot organizations, environmentalists and local governments have started taking the problem seriously.

Several years ago, a group of Alaskan Airlines flight attendants sued their carrier after becoming ill. Congress eventually took up the issue, issuing a report in 2002 that called for creation of a surveillance and research program to monitor and analyze cabin air quality.

Australian lawmakers commissioned a study in 2000 that found airline crew illnesses could be attributed to toxic exposures in the cabin. That report recommended better airplane maintenance, air quality monitoring and further study of the issue.

Recently, pilot associations in the United Kingdom appealed to the airline industry to cooperate with medical experts to find out what type of health risks are associated with these exposures and how to prevent them.

However, little research has actually been produced thus far. Experts agree the symptoms being reported are consistent with exposure to carbon monoxide or organophosphates, but no conclusive studies have yet been published.

As for the Congressional directive in 2002? The wheels of government move slowly. The research grant wasn’t even awarded until June of 2005, when $1.2 million was given to the University of Oregon Labor and Education Research Center to come up with an appropriate surveillance program and analyze samples of contaminants from commercial airline cabins. The project – including recommendations for medical protocols – is not scheduled for completion until next year. 

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To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org, or www.healthandenvironment.org