Making Cabin Air Safer For Flight Crews — and You

The hospitalization of three AFA-CWA-represented flight attendants and two pilots from carbon monoxide poisoning on a Washington, D.C., to Boston flight on Nov. 5 was yet another reminder of serious cabin air and environment issues that the union has been demanding action on for many years.

Noxious fumes from an oil leak in an auxiliary power unit is the likely cause of the air crew's illness, which resulted from an industry-wide practice of allowing air to pass through an aircraft's engines before entering the cabin. Flight attendants call it "engine bleed" air, and it can be dangerous when contaminated with fumes from heated engine oil, prompting respiratory ailments, muscle aches and neurological problems that can impair flight attendants' or pilots' ability to perform their duties.

Carbon monoxide is just one of a number of toxins that can enter aircraft, according to Alaska Airlines flight attendant John Cornelius, who is working with the union to advise researchers in an extensive nationwide study to determine the full scope of the problem. The study, called the Occupational Health Research Consortium in Aviation, is made up of researchers from the Universities of California and Oregon, University of British Columbia, and Harvard.

"The industry has thrown up roadblocks every step of the way," he says. "Airlines are refusing to let us collect samples, and researchers are being forced to collect the data surreptitiously." A recent analysis of wipe samples taken from interior cabin surfaces of 17 aircraft indicated the presence of the neurotoxic chemical TCP (tricresylphosphate) on 8 of them. Exposure to TCP can cause brain cell death and headaches, dizziness, memory loss, confusion, nausea, vomiting, and tremors.

The joint study is also looking at other cabin air and environmental threats caused by "disinsection," spraying the cabin with insecticides on international flights and improper cabin pressurization.

Breathing insecticides causes headaches, hypersensitivity and neurological disorders. Improper pressurization to save on fuel costs reduces oxygen levels in the cabin by as much as 25 percent, causing fatigue and posing a threat to those with heart and other conditions.

"I feel that we're making progress, but the Federal Aviation Administration has been hesitant to instruct the industry to allow our participation," says Cornelius. While the FAA funded the program it is has failed to require the airlines' cooperation.

AFA-CWA is seeking to remedy that through a bill now moving through Congress that would require the FAA to have the airlines allow for the collection and testing of samples from the passenger cabin. The measure, part of the FAA budget reauthorization bill, has been passed by the House and awaits action in the Senate.

  "It's time that the health of millions of passengers and crew members is taken into consideration," said AFA-CWA President Pat Friend. "We will never know the exposures of crew and passengers in the aircraft cabin to potential toxins and their combined effects until we are able to identify and study what they are. It's time for the FAA and the airlines to get out of the way of progress."

  Flight attendants, and passengers too, would also win stronger in-flight protections through passage of legislation already approved by the U.S. House to require the FAA to issue and enforce OSHA-like protections for airline crews, who are not covered by OSHA. Action on the bill is pending in the Senate.