A conference is being held at Imperial College London, UK, on September 19-20, 2017, to explore aircraft cabin air quality. The program includes 30 speakers over eight sessions.
“Pilot and crew impairment from exposure to contaminated air in aircraft has been acknowledged by numerous leading air accident bureaus around the world but the issue remains unresolved,” said Tristan Loraine, spokesperson for the Global Cabin Air Quality Executive and a former British Airways captain.
“The 2017 conference will be the largest conference ever held on this topic and will see most of the world experts discuss the issue with those who have the technical capability to resolve the problem and those who could take us closer to a final resolution.”
“What we are seeing here is aircraft crew being repeatedly exposed to low levels of hazardous contaminants from the engine oils in bleed air, and to a lesser extent this also applies to frequent fliers,” said Vyvyan Howard, professor of pathology (toxicology) at the University of Ulster.
“We know from a large body of toxicological scientific evidence that such an exposure pattern can cause harm and, in my opinion, explains why aircrew are more susceptible than average to associated illness. However, exposure to this complex mixture should be avoided also for passengers, susceptible individuals and the unborn.”
“As a former airline captain who was totally incapacitated due to oil fumes, as was my co-pilot, in an aircraft flying at 500km/h, I know how real this problem really is,” said Captain Niels Gomer, a Swedish pilot involved in the 1999 Malmo incident. “The sooner the aviation industry acts to fix the problem rather than attempt to deny the problem, the sooner this aviation safety issue will be resolved.”
June 7, 2017
