The problem has been known since the 1950s - roughly 70 years and nothing has ever been done about it. The air in the cabin is still ‚bled off’ (the engines) in airplanes - with the well-known possible consequences for flight safety and health, in particular that of flight crew. We have the cultural history on 'Flying is safe' and the ongoing problems investigated at www.ansTageslicht.de/cabinair (EN).
Although the cabin air is 50% re-circulated in modern aircraft types, the basic problem remains unsolved. With one exception: the Boeing B787. This is/was also the state of knowledge at the first big conference on this topic in London in September 2017. The presentations can now be viewed here: www.aircraftcabinair.com
There are many reasons why no solutions are found: the targeted influencing of scientific discussions, the airlines’ economic interests, the links between politics and air transport industry and other reasons.
The ‚Aerotoxic Logbook’, launched in January 2017, is a first comprehensive documentation addressing the problem of potentially contaminated cabin air (www.ansTageslicht.de/Kabininenluft - German) and documents what is happening in this area. Or, what is not happening. And why not. This German language blog (www.ansTageslicht.de/ATLB) is now also available in English and can be accessed directly via this permalink: www.ansTageslicht.de/ENATLB. And you should also have a look at www.ansTageslicht.de/fume-event-files - an "ABC" under permanent construction.
The information we collect in German is translated by Bearnairdine BEAUMONT who operates the network www.aerotoxicteam.com and the blog www.aerotoxicsyndrombook.com/blog.
With the ‚Aerotoxic Logbook’ we want to achieve international networking, bringing together all initiatives and activities to communicate about this unsolved problem and to initiate solutions. At the same time it is a scientific experiment: What must happen before a problem is addressed?
Other initiatives providing information on the contaminated air issue you can get here (right side).
In the meantime, the first presentations given and speeches made at the first major conference held in London in September 2017 on this topic, have now gone on-line: www.aircraftcabinair.com/films.
More will follow...
The International Aircraft Cabin Air Conference took place at the Imperial College in Kensington/ London over two days (19th and 20th September) and was by far the largest gathering of experts, scientists, affected people and interested parties to date. About 300 people attended, among them about 30 speakers.
Representatives of the aviation industry were only very sparsly represented - at least officially, but included 2 representatives from PALL Aerospace who, together with easyJet, want to test a new bleed-air filter system (see entry below).
Representatives of other manufacturers (Airbus, Boeing) or airlines (Lufthansa, Condor etc.) from Germany for example, were not present, but presumably attended undercover. The BDL (Bundesverband der Deutschen Lufverkehrswirtschaft) had also refused to participate in this first ever conference which presented and discussed the latest findings on the technical state of affairs, the problem acceptance and their possible solutions.
The responisble authorities (BFU - Bundesstelle für Flugunfalluntersuchungen, LBA - Luftfahrtbundesamt, EASA - European Aviation Safety Agency) have in the past and present completely denied the new findings and discussions. The German aviation industry, the supervisory and regulatory authorities and the political government of the‘Grand Coalition’ still deny – at least to all outward appearances - the looming problem
