A workshop? held? in the United Kingdom has suggested the mandatory inclusion of a health warning on air tickets, as on cigarette packets, to warn passengers of the dangers of inhalable toxic chemical in aircraft cabin air.
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The Workshop “Inhalable Toxic Chemicals in Aircraft Cabin Air” (ITCOBA), held on October 11, 2011 at Cranfield University (Cranfield is a United Kingdom postgraduate university for aerospace, automotive, energy, environment, healthcare and others) was organised in order to respond to the disinformation that has increasingly surrounded the issue of whether aircraft cabin air is contaminated with neurotoxins and whether those substances caused ill-health.
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The ITCOBA workshop embraced a more comprehensive and integrated approach to the problem than has ever been attempted in the past. All relevant academic disciplines were represented and the medical, economic and legal implications surrounding the issue were also tackled. It attracted a remarkably diverse group of participants, among whom were aircrew (both pilots and cabin staff), doctors specialising in aviation medicine, molecular biologists developing biomarkers for the medical conditions resulting from exposure, engineers developing possible remedial technologies, journalists and lawyers.
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The key starting hypothesis was “Certain substances present in aircraft cabin air cause neural degeneration”. It was the aim of the workshop to advance towards considered acceptance or rejection of this hypothesis and, along the way, to make it more precise. The primary focus should undoubtedly be on the Tricresyl Phosphates ( used as an additive in lubricating oil) present in jet engine oil as anti-wear additives.
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Careful laboratory studies in animals have demonstrated their severe neurotoxicity. They can affect you when it is inhaled, can irritate the skin, throat, eyes and may affect the nervous system among others. They can leak into the cabin via the oil seals in the engines and, as noted above, measurements have confirmed they do. There is, therefore, prima facie a health risk, increasing with the degree of exposure. Since practically the entire human body is innervated, functions such as thinking and motor control may be affected. Prima facie there must also be a safety risk since the pilots are breathing the same air, even before inhalation is sufficient to cause complete incapacitation.
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Due to the wide range of symptoms expected from a neurotoxin, especially those that cause physical degeneration of parts of the nervous system, and the delay in their appearance after exposure, affected people may not consult a physician and even if they do their condition may be misdiagnosed. A particularly example is vague diagnosis as a psychiatric ailment which, if nothing else, prevents the correct treatment being applied. Highly encouraging, successful biochemical treatments are being developed and are already available.