All passengers on most commercial flights are exposed to dangerous levels of carbon monoxide according to a report to be released by the Aerotoxic Association this Thursday – July 14th 2022.
The report findings are significant because until now it was understood that ‘Aerotoxic Syndrome’, whose existence was first acknowledged in 1999, is caused by organophosphates.
The BBC published Fume Events in the air and released Something in the Air in 2020, but have not yet acknowledged the role of Carbon Monoxide.
EasyJet were supposed to fit filters on their planes in 2017 to prevent Aerotoxic Syndrome but changed their mind.
The LA Times did an investigation into toxic fumes on air planes and a follow up article about proposed legislation in the American Congress.
Carbon monoxide
A new scientific paper called: Aerotoxic syndrome: A new occupational disease caused by contaminated cabin air? by G. Hagemana,*, S.J. Mackenzie Rossb, J. Nihoma, and G. van der Laanc, states the following:
Another potential contaminant in cabin air is carbonmonoxide (Solbu
et al., 2011). Pilots exposed to fume events, with reductions in acetylor
butyl cholinesterases and NTE activity (Heutelbeck et al., 2016;
Michaelis et al., 2017), also had carboxyhemoglobin levels above the normal
range (Michaelis et al., 2017). Carbonmonoxide exposure is well known in
aircraft fueling vehicles, or due to exhaust fumes from the combustion
engines, and was reported by pilots of small airplanes (Cessna, Piper) in civil
aviation. The most common physical symptoms of chronic low-level
carbon-monoxide toxicity are headache, dizziness, breathing difficulties,
nausea, and flu-like symptoms. These symptoms are non-specific and often
dismissed as having a viral cause (Clarke et al., 2012). Carbon monoxide is a
neurotoxin that can cause immediate or delayed cognitive impairment
(Sykes and Walker, 2016).
G. Hagemana,*, S.J. Mackenzie Rossb, J. Nihoma, and G. van der Laanc
The Aerotoxic Association is a group that was formed in 2007 for people who who are affected by Aerotoxic Syndrome
The Flight Decks on commercial aircraft are sealed during flight as a post 9/11 security measure, With a 3 person air crew on a longer flight One would imagine that this problem is much more acute and in the larger passenger cabins with air handling systems and pressurisation the volumes of exhaled breath to stale air circulation presents a different calculus which I suspect is less acute in the Passenger compartments.
It would seem though that there is no Limit or maybe The Sky’s no longer the limit on the Nanny State. .
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