Many experts uneasy with use of recirculated air on modern jet liners

[Guest guest]

(Could this explain the incidents of rage and attacks on airline personnel?)

http://www.calgaryherald.com/

Calgary Herald

December 23, 1999

High-altitude Cabin fever: Air quality gets blame for health problems

Forget hot towelettes and mini-pretzel packs. What air travellers could use,

some critics say, is more air.

Prof. Hocking, for one, can't help but wonder whether passengers are

arriving at their destinations more drained, exhausted and fuzzy-headed than

they used to because of a dramatic drop in the amount of outside air that's

being blown into aircraft cabins.

Planes built before the mid-1980s often circulated 100-per-cent fresh air,

says the University of professor of chemistry. With most commercial

aircraft today, it's more like 50/50 -- half fresh, half recirculated air.

And, according to a special report last year in the journal Heating,

Ventilation and Air Conditioning, some pilots are reportedly being urged to

turn off air packs if a flight isn't full, further reducing the fresh-air

supply in order to save fuel.

Now, an international group that sets voluntary standards for air systems is

proposing that airplanes circulate less -- not more -- outside air. At a

meeting in Seattle this summer, a committee of the American Society of

Heating, Refrigerating and Air- Conditioning Engineers, or ASHRAE, proposed

establishing a new minimum rate at which fresh air should be ventilated into

cabins -- a rate that's one- third what's now recommended for airplanes. The

proposal triggered such a backlash that some members of the committee

stormed out of the meeting in protest.

Passengers, especially those on international flights, have to sit in a

closely packed situation for hours with the ''smallest provision of fresh

air'' of any public transportation, says Hocking.

The air-ventilation standard set by ASHRAE for indoor air today is 15 cubic

feet of fresh air per minute per person. Anything less and you start

courting so-called sick- building syndrome. That standard applies to all

forms of public transportation, including planes, buses and trains.

But the engineers' group is proposing that five cubic feet of fresh air per

minute per person is sufficient for aircraft cabins, a recommendation Prof.

Christian van Netten dismisses as ''totally inadequate.''

''In a building, when you don't have enough fresh air, you can always go

outside. Try to do that in an airplane,'' says van Netten, who teaches

health care and epidemiology at the University of British Columbia.

Airlines began to cut back on fresh air ventilated into cabins to conserve

fuel during the oil crisis in the 1970s. Since then, flight attendants'

complaints about symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, sudden fatigue and

nausea have grown, says the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which

represents 9,500 flight attendants in Canada. All can be signs of elevated

carbon dioxide.

''You're breathing stale, recirculated air. It's the same crappy air that

keeps going around and around,'' says France Pelletier, the health and

safety chair of CUPE's airline division. ''In an aircraft, human beings give

off different chemicals. We give off carbon dioxide. And in the aircraft

furnishings themselves, you can have formaldehyde, you can have all kinds of

things in the carpet. And this stuff is not getting flushed out. It's just

being recirculated.''

As far as Transport Canada is concerned, ''we don't believe that the air

quality, on an on-going basis, is effectively a threat to passengers and

crew,'' says spokesman Greenslade. He says complaints from the public

to the department about aircraft air quality have been ''few and far

between.'' Still, Transport Canada last year established a working group to

look at air quality, largely because of flight attendants' complaints.

Air Canada spokeswoman Cooke says the airline ensures cabin-air

ventilation exceeds the manufacturers' recommended settings. She also says

air crews have ''limited control'' over ventilation systems, and that HEPA

filters on planes such as the Boeing 767, 777 and the A320 Airbus are

removed and replaced every three months.

''There have been hundreds of air-quality studies that have been done and

they're showing no link at all between cabin air quality'' and health

complaints, says Olsen, spokeswoman for Boeing, which has close to

11,000 commercial airplanes in use today.

Olsen says the 50/50 mix of outside and recirculated air on Boeing aircraft

provides between 10 and 20 cubic feet of ''total'' air per minute per

person. The air in the cabin is replaced by an incoming mixture of outside

air and filtered air every two to three minutes. ''So what you're looking at

is 20 to 30 exchanges per hour, which is four to 15 times higher than any

typical building.''

She says Boeing has ''no intention whatsoever of lowering the amount of air

that comes into our airplanes. It's not going to be done. We're not going to

lower what we've got now, that's for sure.''

But Hocking says manufacturers and airlines should be reducing, even

eliminating entirely, the practice of recirculating cabin air.

In a study published last year in the American Industrial Hygiene

Association Journal, he noted that not all airlines that recirculate their

cabin air use HEPA filters -- the same filters used to keep operating rooms

sterile. And even when recirculated air is filtered, bacterial and fungal

concentrations tend to be higher than on aircraft that use 100-per-cent

fresh air.

But Hocking believes the more outside air in those exchanges, the better.

He's calculated that, for a flight between Vancouver and Toronto, it would

cost only an extra 75 to 90 cents per passenger to triple the outside air

supply.

Fly in Comfort

When you fly, you can take these steps to make your trip safer and more

comfortable:

1.) Get to the airport early.

2.) Once on board, exercise your legs in your seat and get up and walk

around the cabin every hour, especially on long- distance flights, to reduce

the risk of a blood clot forming in your leg. If you can, choose an aisle

seat.

3.) Minimize drinks containing caffeine and alcohol. They're dehydrating.

4.) If you have a serious illness such as heart disease or a pulmonary

condition consult your doctor before flying. For example, if someone has a

history of blood clots, doctors may recommend wearing elastic stockings; in

some cases, the doctor may even recommend taking an anti-coagulant before a

flight.

5.) If there's a possibility you might require oxygen during the flight,

consult your doctor and the airline's medical department.

Other experts recommend drinking cola or coffee to provide a quick lift if

you feel faint. To keep air passages moist and reduce the risk of catching a

cold or flu, drink lots of water (bring bottled water with you) or use a

nasal mister.

In her book, Jet Smart, former flight attendant Fairechild also

recommends dunking a handkerchief in water and laying it over your face. It

acts as a humidifier and filter for circulating germs.

Source: Dr. B. Rayman, a physician and executive director of the

Virginia-based Aerospace Medical Association.