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African Airways. It aimed at including 1,000 passengers and dynamic air pressure change appears to be what is important. reporting before the end of 2002 (email best-study @kcl.ac.uk). Cerebral thrombosis "at altitude" was discussed by Song et al. The Australian Department of Health is said to be examining (1986) in the aviation medicine context. Thrombosis "at 10,000 medical records in collaboration with the University of mountain altitudes" was reported by Cucinell and Pitts (1987) in Western Australia and the Australian Department of the same context. Deep venous thrombosis (i.e., DVT Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. Preliminary results were syndrome) was reported "in the military pilot" by Steinhauser expected to be available by August 2002. This was reported in and Stewart (1989). There is an obvious linkage between these the Times of London on 4 April 2002; perhaps this is the "travel" papers, including Bendz et al. (1999): they all involve a change study referred to in Anon. (2002). This relatively inexpensive to a lower air pressure, aircraft and blood coagulation. Only study has evidently taken the place of what was to be the world's Bendz et al. seem to have realised and demonstrated that a biggest (three-year, A$1.7 million) study starting in 2001, relatively rapid change in air pressure, outside that which our involving Dr Ross Baker of the Australasian Society of species has generally experienced in biological evolution and Thrombosis and Hemostasis (ASTH) and Dr Paul Bates of the outside that which can be realised through individual School of Aviation Medicine at Griffith University in locomotion, is significant. Exposure to low-frequency Queensland. It seems there was surprise and disappointment noise/vibration was apparently not a factor in the Bendz et al. amongst the 35-strong research team when the Deputy Prime experiment, except in the barometric frequency range of Minister (i.e., the Transport Minister) chose infrasound, but it may well have been a not to fund this previously well-advertise factor in the other results reported. Australian study. One doctor commented in There is an important, though it seems not the media that the smaller study was well known, body of Eastern Bloc medical "useless". research supportive of the thesis that exposure to infrasound inter alia causes i A lood coagulation: e.g., Mikhailova (1971); ae evntiny te Yories H. Morrissey, There Is an important, Polanowska and “Seoniewakl (1987) Professor of Biochemistry at the University though it seems not Serikova et al. (1977); Svidovyi et al. of Illinois College of Medicine: "The caus- (1985); Tropnikova (1990); and Vasilev es of DVT in general, not to mention specif- well known, body of (1999). Polanowska mentions "intense ic types, are not well understood. Repetitive Eastern Bloc medical infrasounds from arc furnaces"; serotonin prolonged vibration is a well-documented . evels mentioned in Tropnikova are widely risk factor for peripheral thrombotic dis- research supportive accepted as related to cellular trauma; and ease" (personal communication, 27 of the thesis that changes in blood vessels as mentioned exposure to July 2001). in Vasilev are one part of Virchow's Bendz et al. (1999) showed that an . triad of factors leading to blood infrasound causes blood coagulation. air pressure change from sea level to coagulation. These papers were not 2,000 metres over 5 to 10 minutes in a available in toto and, as far as is hypobaric chamber (designed to simu- known, have not been translated into late what actually happens in an air- English. Their titles and in some cases plane after take-off) was associated abstracts are at least highly suggestive, with activation of the tissue factor path- including that some of these countries way, which is primary in the blood are years ahead of the West in this area clotting process. He attributed this to of (occupational) health and safety. hypoxia, but did not exclude other pos- There are guidelines or regulations sible mechanisms. However, he mea- specific to occupational infrasound sured only a 5% decrease in oxygen exposure in Denmark, Norway, Poland saturation levels (from 98.4% to 93.4%) over two hours. and Russia that are not referenced in this article. Further, he found that factor VIIa activity increased most rapidly over the first 30 minutes of the experiment; blood samples were | VIBRO-ACOUSTIC DISEASE not taken at lesser intervals. It is suggested that physical (baro- Twenty years of research into vibro-acoustic disease (VAD)— metric or infrasonic) cellular trauma is actually responsible for coincidentally in aviation personnel—by Castelo Branco et al. these findings—something that most medical researchers, at (1999) has now defined a series of syndromes which include the least in the West, appear not to have considered. cardiorespiratory system, neurological and psychological disor- There is evidence that infrasound can disrupt cellular ders including spontaneous rage reactions (hence "air rage") and organelles including the nucleus: e.g., Gabovich (1979); immunological changes. This work defines VAD as the conse- Nekhoroshev and Glinchikov (1992), who found irreversible quence of occupational exposure to high-amplitude, low-fre- amage to hepatocytes at 8 Hz and 16 Hz; and Silva et al. quency noise for 10 years or more, although some symptoms are (1996). Stepanian et al. (2000) found changes in properties of — evident after one year. It has for the first time established the water and a DNA solution exposed to vibration at specific fre- _ reality of insidious systemic extra-aural adverse health effects of uencies of 4 Hz and 10 Hz, but not at higher frequencies. Low- exposure to low-frequency noise. frequency noise exposure can change epithelial histology in rats In further reference to "air rage", it is already known that (personal communication with Alves-Pereira, 2002). infrasound can entrain brainwaves (which are in the infrasonic Populations living at high altitude are not hypoxic and do not ~—s frequency range), as can strobe light and low-frequency have increased incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE), electromagnetic radiation. We can now appreciate the wisdom in according to Kesteven and Robinson (2000); therefore, a the old saying about what kind of noise annoys an oyster: the There is an important, though it seems not well known, body of Eastern Bloc medical research supportive of the thesis that 4g to VIBRO-ACOUSTIC DISEASE Twenty years of research into vibro-acoustic disease (VAD)— coincidentally in aviation personnel—by Castelo Branco et al. (1999) has now defined a series of syndromes which include the cardiorespiratory system, neurological and psychological disor- ders including spontaneous rage reactions (hence "air rage") and immunological changes. This work defines VAD as the conse- quence of occupational exposure to high-amplitude, low-fre- quency noise for 10 years or more, although some symptoms are evident after one year. It has for the first time established the reality of insidious systemic extra-aural adverse health effects of exposure to low-frequency noise. In further reference to "air rage", it is already known that infrasound can entrain brainwaves (which are in the infrasonic frequency range), as can strobe light and low-frequency electromagnetic radiation. We can now appreciate the wisdom in the old saying about what kind of noise annoys an oyster: the 34 = NEXUS infrasound causes blood coagulation. www.nexusmagazine.com DECEMBER 2002 — JANUARY 2003