Nexus - 1702 - New Times Magazine-pages

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AEROTOXIC SYNDROME AVIATION'S BEST-KEPT SECRET AEROTOXIC SYNDROME AVIATION'S SECRET BEST-KEPT It is high time that the aviation industry acknowledge the insidious problem of toxic oil fumes leaking into aircraft cabins and adopt technical solutions before more aircrew and passengers suffer severe long-term damage to their health. ands up if you have ever got off an airliner feeling unexplainably...ill? Many people experience "jet lag” after flying across time zones, which makes sense, and adjustment can take several days. But what about the many who feel seriously ill for days, weeks, months and even years after a short-haul "fume event" flight? I enjoyed extremely good health until 1989 when, as a new BAe 146 pilot, suddenly developed Alzheimer's-type symptoms of failing memory, speech difficulties and trouble with thought-processing, which left me feeling permanently intoxicated. As I was on permanent night-flying duties, logically put these symptoms down to the anti-social hours and I kept quie’ for fear of losing my job. For 10 years previously, all over the world I had flown "dangerous" low-flying crop-spraying and aerial fire-fighting aircraft as well as the venerable DC-3 Dakota—all of which I flew at low altitude where one breathes normal, unpressurised air. Not unreasonably, | wished to ge into a "safer" form of flying. In 2005, by which time I had become a Training Captain on the BAe 146 bu was now day-flying, my memory was appalling and | knew that I was a hazard not only to myself but to my passengers. In August 2004, I had "failed safe" by walking off a BAe 146 just prior to take-off for a difficult approach into Salzburg airport, Austria, as | was convinced that I was about to kill not only myself but all of my passengers. | finally stopped flying in early 2006 at 49 years of age, confused as to how my excellent health had progressively failed over a 16-year period, leaving me a "zombie-like vegetable”. | would be diagnosed by aviation specialist doctors in early 2006 as suffering from "chronic stress", but 12 months later | knew without any doubt whatsoever that | had actually been "chronically poisoned" by repeatedly breathing visible oil fumes in the BAe 146. Like so many others around the world, | would soon unfortunately discover "the best-kept secret in aviation" and a major cause of mysterious, undiagnosed ill health, mainly in aircrew but also in airline passengers who can become equally adversely affected from just one bad flight. A dangerous design flaw In October 1999, three international scientists proposed the term Aerotoxic Syndrome to describe the serious neurological ill health that results from breathing toxic cabin air from airliners. How could the air become toxic? Surely at 35,000 feet the air is less dense, but how could it be poisonous? When jet aircraft first flew in the late 1950s, the engineers knew that they had to provide compressed air in airliners to support life at high altitudes and so they designed mechanical compressors which did the job well. All of the early jet airliners such as the DC-8 and Boeing 707 used this separately compressed air. by Captain John Hoyte © 2009 Chairman BM Aerotoxic Association London, WCIN 3XX, UK Email: info@aerotoxic.org Website: http://www.aerotoxic.org Chairman BM Aerotoxic Association London, WCIN 3XX, UK Email: info@aerotoxic.org Website: NEXUS ° 17 FEBRUARY - MARCH 2010 www.nexusmagazine.com