Aerotoxic Association

The following letter was published in the ‘Farmers Guardian’ on 20th August 2010. The author highlights a document produced in the UK by the Health & Safety Executive which lists “suicidal intent” as one of the chronic symptoms of organophosphate (OP) poisoning. As it has been shown thay OPs in the form of tricresyl phosphate regularly get into airliner cabins, it is no coincidence that some of our members have felt so ill that thoughts of suicide have also entered their minds.

Last Thursday German TV and radio were hot with the revelation of an internal paper leaked to the German media. The document is from the Bundesverband der Deutschen Fluggesellschaften, BDF (Association of German airlines) and reveals their concerns of further media attention on the subject of contaminated cabin air. It urges its members to do their best to keep attention away from passengers who have been affected by contaminated cabin air, to keep quiet about the issue, and if they do have to speak, to make sure they all have their stories straight.

Boeing unveiled their new 787 Dreamliner to the public this week at the Farnborough Airshow. The aircraft promises new levels of passenger well-being, delivering the occupants with fewer headaches, less dizziness and fatigue. In an interview with the BBC, Thomson Airways’ Communications Director Christian Cull explains how this is achieved, including supplying cleaner cabin air.

“BALPA is asking pilots to take this seriously and to report any health-related symptoms during or after a flight.” We thought we would re-visit this article from BALPA’s August-September 2004 edition of ‘The Log’ magazine as a lot of the information contained within it is just as pertinent now as it was then. It also contains an informative section “Organophosphates under the spotlight” and a case study of an affected pilot.

BALPA: The Aircraft Environment

Michael Cramer, MEP for the Greens in the European Parliament wants the European Commission and the EU Member States to take responsibility for crew and passenger health on aircraft, but both sides are doing their best to distance themselves from the issue.

The U.S. Senate has approved an amendment by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that would require the FAA to conduct a study of air quality in the cabins of U.S. airliners.

“John Hoyte lost his medical category as a BAE Systems 146 captain in 1989, a victim of aerotoxic syndrome, which left him seriously neurologically damaged. He founded the Aerotoxic Association in June 2007”

Read the whole article at flightglobal.com

Interview with Jörg Handwerg, airline captain and spokesman for the pilot union Cockpit. Translation of an article in the German newspaper sueddeutsche.de

On 18th May 2010, a contaminated cabin air conference was held in Berlin, attended by representatives from major trade unions and other interested parties. The following press release was issued shortly afterwards:

The General Medical Council is again threatening to withdraw Dr Sarah Myhill’s licence, this time after two vague and anonymous accusations were received from two doctors about her work and the information on her website. It seems Dr Myhill is not being allowed to defend her position and that the GMC are simply siding with the complainants even though no complaints have been received from any of her patients.

21 April 2010: Five years to the day after BALPA’s Contaminated Air Conference concluded that “there is a workplace problem resulting in chronic and acute illness amongst flight crew”, what has happened to improve cabin air quality since?

In June last year we reported that former Flight Attendant Joanne Turner had won her case against her former employer, East West Airlines. East West appealed the decision and this week the appeal was dismissed. As far as we know this is the first civil case of its kind that has been won in court rather than settled outside as has occurred before.

Rev John Woodley was the former Chair on the Senate Committee on Rural, Regional Affairs & Transport in the Australian Parliament. He says if he had all available information at the time of the 1999/2000 inquiry into BAe 146 Cabin Air Quality, he would have recommended grounding the aircraft.

 Letter from Rev Woodley to GCAQE

BAe “money paid for silence” document

Letters from the Aerotoxic Association (AA) requesting information about cabin air quality regulations and associated research, plus replies.

In the UK, the Department for Transport (DfT) has helpfully published an ‘FAQ’ to allay any fears anyone may have regarding airliner cabin air quality. On the whole their answers are far from the truth, and in a bid to set the record straight, the Aerotoxic Association has provided its own, more accurate version.

In a letter to Professor Sir Michael Rawlins, Chairman of NICE, Professor Hooper makes a complaint about proposed “PACE” trials on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME).

This is a communication from April 2008 between Sandra Webber, chair of the Aviation Health Working Group (AHWG) and Dr Nigel Dowdall from British Airways Health Services (BAHS), who was also sitting on the AHWG committee at the time.

We feel that this article is very unbalanced in favour of the non-believers of contaminated cabin air and its health effects. Aerotoxic Syndrome didn’t get a mention, nor did the victims of this illness or all the evidence showing that contaminated cabin air is extremely hazardous. But please check out all available evidence, for and against, and decide for yourself.

Clearing the Air - Australian Aviation Jan-Feb 2010

Article from the February-March 2010 issue of NEXUS magazine. "The aviation industry must adopt technical solutions to the common problem of toxic oil fumes leaking into aircraft cabins before even more aircrew and passengers become seriously ill." Feel free to pass on the article or you may publish it, provided the article is reproduced in full and credited to Nexus magazine and the author, Capt John Hoyte.

NEXUS: Aerotoxic Syndrome - Aviation's best-kept secret

Deutsche Vesion  Versão Português

Way back in 2004 there were warnings about toxic engine oil fumes entering aircraft cabins. These have still not been heeded by the aviation authorities. Fixes including air filters, fume detectors and less toxic oil are all available today, but are still not required by law and are not implemented by airlines.

Read the article (courtesy of AOPIS)

If sheep farmers using organophosphorous pesticides are given dire warnings about the effects coming into contact with the chemical, why are passengers and aircrew kept in the dark about inhaling organophosphates in aircraft cabins?

DHL Air Ltd, who operate freight-carrying Boeing 757s issued this notice to their crews on the subject of cockpit fumes. What seems alarming is that this instruction on fault-finding gives the pilots no advice about the neurotoxic health effects of the fumes, and in fact describes their regular occurrence as normal, contrary to Boeing who describe these events as “rare”.

 DHL Cockpit fumes - Fault-finding

The newsletter from the Breakspear Hospital UK, with information about Aerotoxic Syndrome, diagnoses and treatments.

 Breakspear Medical Bulletin - Issue 22 Autumn/Early winter 2009

This newspaper article was brought to our attention by a post made on the PPRuNe website. The article is a rough Google translation.

Twin sisters Victoria and Valerie Vaughn boarded Southwest Airlines flight 1705 on 27th January 2009 in good health, but ended up in hospital after the cabin filled with fumes and have been suffering health problems ever since. They have filed a court petition to compel Southwest Airlines to reveal more about the incident on the aircraft and as of 28 October are suing the airline.

Lord Tyler initiated a debate in the UK's House of Lords on 27 October 2009, and accused the government of doing nothing about the aircraft contaminated problem for the past ten years. Following the debate Lord Tyler issued this media release:

Given its commercial interests, can the cabin air quality study at Cranfield University sponsored by the Department for Transport really be unbiased?

In light of a recent admission from Professor Helen Muir that research commissioned by the UK government will find organophosphates in aircraft cabins, the Aerotoxic Association has written to various Lords and MPs calling urgently for the government to divulge information on the chemical composition of oil fumes.

“Public Justice, a national public interest law firm headquartered in Washington DC, has joined a lawsuit in Washington state on behalf of a flight attendant who suffered serious permanent injuries from breathing toxic “bleed air” – engine oil fumes emitted from a defectively designed aircraft.”

Public justice joins fight to save airline passengers and crew members from toxic ‘bleed air’ exposure

Media release from Lord Tyler - Liberal Democrat peer and air safety campaigner.

BAE systems presentation on a new bleed air filter system available for the BAe 146 / RJ and Boeing 757, the top two offenders for cabin air quality problems.

The Quest AirManager

On 11 April, 2009, Terry Williams was working as a flight attendant on an MD-82 aircraft and was exposed to toxic fumes. Since then she has been suffering severe health effects.

A look at BALPA's turnabout on the Cabin Air Quality issue since 2005.

Over the past few days, Tristan Loraine, co-chairman of the Global Cabin Air Quality Executive has written to the Queen and the UK Prime Minister in a bid to bring to their attention the ongoing problem of contaminated air in aircraft cabins.

In the UK House of Commons, the issue of cabin air quality got another airing on 1st July 2009 in a one and a half hour debate.

Former Flight Attendant Joanne Turner wins a case against her former employer in relation to ill health caused by a major fume event on a BAe146 on 4 March 1992. We believe this is the first open win of its kind.

Turner v Eastwest Airlines Limited [2009] NSWDDT 10, 5 May 2009

A question to the Secretary of State for Health about Aerotoxic Syndrome research. With AA comment.

Three years ago Captain John Hoyte was forced to give up his airline pilot position. Read his statements and medical reports and decide if you think his ill-health was caused by contaminated cabin air.

The Global Cabin Air Quality Executive is holding a forum in London on 28th and 29th April 2009 to discuss the cabin air quality issue. Many journalists and leading scientific researchers will be attending and speaking. Including agenda, Flightglobal article and photos

Following the recent TV programmes about contaminated cabin air, the eminent toxicologist explains how the authorities conducting research on cabin air quality have been misleading about the toxicity of TCP by concentrating on one of its less toxic isomers, TOCP. Report by Susan Michaelis, GCAQE.

Prof Dietrich Henschler Interview 18/3/09

Tim Van Beveren, maker of the recent programmes about Aerotoxic Syndrome would like to hear from crew or passengers who believe they have been exposed to contaminated cabin air. You can contact him by email at:

•  German and Swiss TV programmes about Aerotoxic Syndrome and Tricresyl phosphate (TCP) in aircraft cabins.
•  Follow-up TV programme also about contaminated cabin air
•  Condor TCP test results
•  Interview with Prof. Dr. Henschler, Toxicologist
•  Accident investigation reports

One of the most common and potentially debilitating symptoms of Aerotoxic Syndrome is Chronic Fatigues Syndrome / Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. This test should help sufferers treat their condition.

Ten years ago the Guardian wrote an article highlighting an incident where smoke entered the cabin of a BAe 146, and the government called for research into the problem. We ask what progress has taken place since then.

The Independent Pilots Association (IPA) sends whistle-blowing DVD about the scandal of contaminated cabin air to its members.

Lord Tyler launches an attack on the UK government's unwillingness to tackle this issue. Video and transcript.

With the help of the Aerotoxic Association, ROSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) has written two articles on the subject of contaminated cabin air. In the first, "Something in the Air", affected aircrew talk about the health effects, and the second, "Air Control", examines whether regulations on Cabin Air Quality are being applied.

ROSPA - part 1 "Something in the Air"

ROSPA - part 2 "Air Control"

In the BBC radio programme, Farming Today, Tim Farron MP talks about how the government failed to act on warnings about organophosphates in sheep dip in a report by Lord Zuckerman. We look at how this relates to government legislation on OPs in aero engines. With links to the radio programme and the Zuckerman reports.

Can the UK Pesticides Campaign's court case victory help change legislation concerning aircraft cabin air quality?

Following the publication of an article in the BALPA magazine "LOG", John has written an open letter to the General Secretary.

Following the screening of the Panorama programme "Something in the Air", The Aerotoxic Association issued a press release calling for urgent action.

The managing director of a travel consumers website has praised Aerotoxic Association's campaign for official recognition of Aerotoxic Syndrome and our call for action to prevent toxic fumes leaking into cabins and cockpits.