The Aerotoxic Logbook (ATLB) in English (EN)

Summer(holiday) & COVID -19: To fly or not to fly?

Many rules apply in the meantime: mandatory wearing of masks in shops and other facilities, safety distances and lots more.

For the aviation business it’s only recommendations that exist with which the airlines can do what they want. Because of their economic and political power, they have been able to enforce this.

This is a problem for passengers who have to or want to fly because they can't really protect themselves very well even if they want to. The airlines set the tone: seat allocation on the plane, the ventilation, boarding and disembarking and everything else. The legal situation is unclear, as is the individual health risk.

This is the conclusion reached by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dieter SCHOLZ from the University of Applied Sciences (HAW) in Hamburg, who is one of the very few people in the world to conduct research into the problem of contaminated cabin air in aircraft, from a technical point of view. Now he has published a small documentation with real recommendations: Sommer 2020 Covid-19, Fliegen: Ja oder Nein? (Summer 2020, COVID-19: Flying: yes or no? English version to follow soon).

Use the standstill in aviation to do something about the contaminated cabin air. And not just against CoVid 19

This is the fundamental demand that the Patienten-Initiative p-coc.com is directing not only at airlines, especially Deutsche Lufthansa, which is now to be kept alive with governmental money but also at politicians.

In total there are 6 specific demands. Some of them have - actually - been legally stipulated for a long time, e.g. that a) there must be no pollutants whatsoever in the cabin air and that therefore b) sensors must be installed.

But no authority is taking this seriously. Neither the BFU nor the LBA, not even the EASA. Politics certainly don't.

How the majority of the members of the CDU/CSU and SPD in the German Bundestag deal with the problem of preventive measures and, in the absence of such measures, the subsequent development of occupational illnesses, was just recently demonstrated by politicians (see the entry of 7th May). And how seriously it takes the problems of around 50,000 people every year.

The Open Letter to the German Chancellor, the responsible ministries, the EU Commission and Lufthansa can be read and/or downloaded here.

Occupational Diseases Reform Act: 2nd and 3rd Reading in 1 Go

This is what it will come down to next Thursday, May 7. Votes are scheduled to begin at 4.15 p.m.

Originally, a public hearing was planned. This was cancelled due to the Corona measures and the statements were submitted in writing by the requested associations, which were then put online. There was no longer any discussion in the Committee for Labour and Social Affairs.

The committee summarised the positions of the associations as follows: "Public Hearings". Also included there are the individual statements. With the exception of the employers' associations, all the others regard the abandonment of the so-called injunction as positive. The latter means that if a BK (Berufskrankheit = occupational disease) is suspected and reported to a BG (Berufsgenossenschaft = Federal Employers' Association), the person concerned must give up the work due to which he or she has (allegedly) became ill. For many, this is often not possible if there is no other job alternative. This provision will now be dropped. Instead, other workplace solutions will be sought.

This is of course a thorn in the side of the Employers' Association of the Metal Industry and in its statement complains about the additional costs incurred as a result; these costs are "unacceptable".

The only positive change we ourselves see is the now, finally, planned official institutionalisation of the "Medical Expert Council 'BK' at the BMAS (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales = Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs). There are now to be scientific experts appointed; The aim is to create 10 scientific staff positions in order to be able to advance the work and the discussions in this relevant body more quickly. It remains to be seen whether scientific staff will then be able to compensate for the structural imbalance of know-how and the preparation of meetings. We will keep an eye on this.

The draft of the DIE LINKE group will be polished off smoothly, the Greens have not even put forward a position of their own - the problem obviously does not play a special role in this party in the Bundestag.

If the bill is waved through on Thursday, it could only be stopped via the Bundesrat. There, the states of Hamburg (SPD/GREENS) and Schleswig-Holstein (CDU/GREENS/FDP) had already attempted to bring in other proposals; NRW (CDU/FDP) had likewise tried to do the same.

However, the corona seems to overshadow everything at present.

„Fume Event ABC"

Officially launched right now: a new site by ansTageslicht.de which is intended to become a kind of ‚WIKI’ regarding the Fume Event problem.

A lot of important and particular information does not always find its way into a larger context text immediately. Some of the points are so relevant that you should be able to look them up alphabetically.

In order to kill 'two birds with one stone' we now have the "Fume Event ABC"  directly accessible and linkable here

• www.ansTageslicht.de/ABC-Fume-Event

The lexicon begins with the following four keywords with relevant contents:

• www.ansTageslicht.de/BMAS: Federal Ministry of Labour & Social Affairs
• www.ansTageslicht.de/Flight-Report-Cockpit : FRC by four pilots following a Fume Even
• www.ansTageslicht.de/Gutachter: a link that redirects to another detailed site at ansTageslicht.de
• www.ansTageslicht.de/Schindler2013: the summary of a critic of a study commissioned by BG Verkehr, which is methodologically and contentwise not very informative - nevertheless, it is highly rated in the industry-funded science and research community.

Further keywords and contents will follow. Suggestions are always welcome!

An English version is under construction.

1st International "Clean Cabin Air Day" 2020

There are  "International Days" for many things: freedom of the press, children, the forest, disabled people, etc. Now the Patient Initiative p-coc.com has decided to declare an "International Clean Cabin Air Day", which from now on will always take place on April 3rd.

We have known about the problems for decades (see www.ansTageslicht.de/cabinairchronology - in EN), as well as about the regularity of fume-event incidents (see www.ansTageslicht.de/incidents - also in EN), and there are more and more affected people who become terminally ill.

According to the Lufthansa Group, such incidents happen on every 2,000 flights = 1:2000. If one converts this to daily or weekly flight operations, this amounts to 10 fume events per week. Almost two every day.

P-coc now wants to tackle this problem and generate worldwide attention for this still unsolved problem. https://www.facebook.com/groups/865783380264164/More on their Facebook page.