Background: Little is known about long-term adverse health consequences experienced by flight attendants exposed to secondhand smoke (SHS) during the time smoking was allowed on airplanes. We undertook this study to evaluate the association between accumulated flight time in smoky airplane cabins and respiratory tract diseases in a cohort of never smoking flight attendants.
Industry, government, and labor representatives have all acknowledged that air supply systems on commercial aircraft sometimes get contaminated with pyrolyzed engine oil or hydraulic fluid, but efforts to define "sometimes" have been lacking. Despite the lack of attention it has received, the answer to this "how often" question is important because it will influence the willingness of industry, as well as regulators and legislators, to develop and implement control measures to prevent such air supply contamination. To address this data gap, an industrial hygienist collected reports of air supply contamination over an 18-month period (January 2006 through June 2007) from the following sources, all per defined inclusion criteria: (1) Service Difficulty Reports (SDR) and Accident and Incident Data System (AIDS) reports that airlines submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); (2) incidents that flight attendants documented with one of 20 airlines and copied to one crewmember labor union; and (3) newspaper clips identified in online searches. A qualified airline mechanic reviewed each SDR and AIDS report with an oil or hydraulic fluid-related mechanical defect that did not explicitly mention oil or hydraulic fluid in combination with a specific word that indicated air supply contamination (i.e., "fume," "haze," "mist," "odor," "smell," or "smoke") to determine its eligibility. The resulting dataset of 470 air supply contamination events reported in the U.S. commercial fleet over an 18month period translates into an average of 0.86 events per day and includes 350 incidents reported by airlines to the FAA, 115 reported flight attendants to their airline, and 37 incidents reported by at least one newspaper. There was limited overlap between sources. The data are discussed in detail along with commentary on whether and how the data are representative, the health and operational costs We use cookies, including third party cookies, to provide you with the best possible browsing experience. To learn more about cookies and our privacy practices, please review our privacy policy with updates effective May 25, 2018.
Pyrolyzed engine oil sometimes contaminates aircraft environmental control systems, exposing aircraft occupants to oil fumes containing toxic chemical constituents. Exposure to oil fumes has been reported to cause both acute and chronic neurological and respiratory symptoms, and has been documented to compromise flight safety. Neither the frequency nor the causes and characteristics of fume events have been well-described, either at individual airlines or industry-wide. As a case study, the author identified reported air contamination events on one side of the operations of one major US airline over a two-year period. A total of 87 fume events were identified on 47 aircraft fleet-wide, but A319, B767, and E190 aircraft appear to be overrepresented. Crew reported unusual odors on 83 of 87 flights, most commonly described as "dirty socks." Although the odor was reported prior to take off on 44 flights, only 20 of those flights were either cancelled or delayed, while the rest flew to their planned destinations, many with crew health and potential flight safety consequences. Out of all 87 fume events, one or more crewmembers had symptoms serious enough to require emergency medical care after 27 flights (31%), follow-up medical care after 43 flights (49%), and lost work time after 37 flights (43%). Mechanical records confirmed that oil contaminated the air supply on 41 of the 87 flights. After 30 of the flights, no mechanical cause was identified but oil was suspected based on the event characteristics, highlighting the need for maintenance workers to be trained to perform more targeted troubleshooting with less time pressure to enable them to identify and remedy the primary sources of contamination. The significant crew health, flight safety, and operational impact of these events, all support recommendations for crew training to recognize and respond to events, maintenance worker training to more effectively troubleshoot systems, and design/maintenance measures to prevent events, including bleed air filters/monitors on commercial aircraft that supply engine bleed air to occupants.
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