Toxic Fumes on Airline Flights: What's It All About?

In a recent post Becoming More Aware of Toxins In Our Environment, I referred to an article published on June 10, 2007 by The Independent called, "Toxic fumes on planes 'threaten thousands of passengers each year". This article reports that scientific research has shown that fumes present in planes have rendered pilots incapable of flying their aircraft safely. One of the symptoms cited was fatigue, along with many others which coincidentally are all typical of those experienced by people with chemical sensitivity.Two more articles have appeared on this subject since then. On June 19, 2007 NewScientist published an article titled: "Toxic fumes impairing our ability to fly, say pilots". It reports that pilots say that toxic fumes on planes are poisoning them, rendering them unable to fly and that they are campaigning for 'aerotoxic syndrome' to be recognized as a disease. The article also refers to symptoms: "Symptoms related to long term exposure purportedly include neurological and respiratory problems, memory loss, difficulties with speech, and chronic fatigue." This list of symptoms is remarkably similar to those experienced by people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.

A third article was released today, June 25, by the BBC: "Tired pilots 'compromise safety'". This article makes no mention of the extended symptoms referred to in the other two articles cited above. Far along in the article it qualifies fatigue as 'chronic fatigue', which is known to be a common way of referring to a symptom related to an ongoing health condition, rather than incidental tiredness from lack of sleep. The paragraph with this reference reads: "Dr. Ian Perry, one of the country's leading consultants in aviation medicine, says the number of pilots coming to see him who are chronically fatigued has doubled over the last five years to four or five people a fortnight, he said."

This means that five years ago the doctor was seeing at least two pilots a fortnight who were chronically fatigued. This illustrates that this isn't a new problem. Given the importance of it, both from the perspective of pilots who are becoming ill in statistically significant numbers, and secondly, to passengers, it would be reasonable to expect the aviation industry to have taken faster action to remedy the situation.

There is another BBC article published 9 years ago, dated September 1998, "Health Cover up over pilot fatigue" in which the same Dr. Ian Perry, the examiner of pilots for the Civil Aviation Authority and the Federal Aviation Authority, tells that many doctors are grounding pilots for fatigue, but are giving another reason on official reports. The article says: "He admits he himself covers up the extent of the problem, which could be a factor in plane crashes." The article continues: "Research shows 70% of crashes are due to pilot error."

The last paragraph of the NewScientist article from the 19th of this month, (mentioned above) quotes Jonathan Nicholson, a spokesperson for the UK's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as saying: "Everybody recognises that there are incidents where fumes enter cabins. We will look at further work on the issue if long-term health issues are proven."

In his blog, Seth Godin recently wrote a really relevant post called Responsibility. He calls marketing people to attention with examples, demonstrating just how influential marketing tactics are. He says: "If you get asked to market something, you're responsible. You're responsible for the impacts, the costs, the side effects and the damage. You killed that kid. You poisoned that river. You led that fight. If you can't put your name on it, I hope you'll walk away. If only 10% of us did that, imagine the changes. Imagine how proud you'd be of your work."

That is great advice, not just for marketers, but for every single one of us to strive for -- a call to live honestly, courageously, truthfully.