Flying the Safer, Healthier Skies

Americans can thank union flight attendants for making flying healthier, safer, and more secure. For decades, members of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA have worked to make their workplace — the cabin environment that we only temporarily inhabit — hazard free. No one benefits more from their efforts than U.S. airline passengers, who make a mind-boggling 656 million boardings each year.

Besides concerns over terrorism, turbulence and occasional accidents, the cabin environment itself on planes is less benign than most people imagine. AFA-CWA and its members are more vigilant about passengers' health and safety than either the airlines or the government, which usually have to be dragged kicking and screaming into addressing workplace hazards in the passenger cabin.

The cabin environment presents numerous health and safety risks — for example, foul cabin air. On most planes, cabin air passes through the aircraft's engines. Flight attendants call it "engine bleed" air, and it sometimes becomes contaminated with fumes from heated engine oil. Because oil-contaminated air can cause respiratory ailments, muscle aches and neurological problems, flight attendants have lobbied the government and industry to address the issue. Every year, more than 100 members of AFA-CWA descend on Congress, speaking to members of the House and Senate on this and other cabin safety issues. The industry is also getting the message: newer designs such as Boeing's 787, due out by 2009, will not funnel cabin air through the engines.

Cabin pressure is another issue. Most airlines maintain cabin air pressurization that is equivalent to what one would experience at an elevation of 8,000 feet — or 3,000 feet higher than the city of Denver. Yet at that level, passengers get 25 percent less oxygen than they would at sea level. This can be harmful to those with heart and other medical conditions. By contrast, private jets operate at a cabin air pressure equivalent to 5,000-6,000 feet. Why not commercial jets? AFA-CWA serves on numerous standard-setting committees in the industry and its active participation is leading to improvements. The new Boeing 787 also is being designed to operate at the 6,000-foot equivalent.

Pesticides present another problem. You would never spray Black Flag Roach Killer throughout your living room, dining room or kitchen, but airlines spray the passenger cabin — and passengers — with toxic pesticides on flights from the U.S. to 48 countries that require that cabins be "dis-insected." U.S. passengers are regularly exposed to pesticides on flights to Caribbean nations, Central and South America, Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan and other countries. AFA-CWA was instrumental in creating a government task force that resulted in current discussions with foreign nations over safer alternatives to pesticides in the cabin.

Radiation in flight is another concern. Higher than normal levels of cosmic and solar radiation penetrate the passenger cabin during flights near the Arctic while in route to Europe or Asia. AFA-CWA recommends that pregnant women — whether passengers or flight crew — limit flying in these areas because radiation levels can reach the equivalent of 10 chest x-rays an hour during periods of high solar flare activity, presenting a danger to the fetus. Solar flares occur only two or three times a year, so working to ensure that pregnant women are not exposed during those periods may make a real difference to those babies and their families.

Last May, AFA-CWA urged the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to issue rulemaking on the subject, educating crew members about the risks, monitoring their radiation doses, and providing some level of protection to pregnant flight attendants that could also benefit passengers as well. FAA denied AFA-CWA's request. In the meantime, the union has urged pregnant flight attendants to always check radiation activity prior to flying.

For more airline safety information go to http://ashsd.afacwa.org.