Contaminated cabin air can be hazardous to cabin and cockpit company not to mention passengers.

Numerous instances allude to the need for a fleetwide cabin air quality measuring program, according to Christiaan van Netten a toxicologist specializing in air quality at the Department of Health Care and Epidemiology at the University of British Columbia in Canada. "From the laboratory we papal court a problem," he said in a telephone interview.

Flight attendants have the appearance more susceptible (perhaps because of lower air circulation rates in the cabin than in the cockpit). They have reported symptoms consistent with outlook to carbon monoxide, respiratory irritants, and possible neurological agents. In sufficient quantities, carbon monoxide - an invisible, tasteless and odorless gas - can be lethal. The prominent symptoms from various cases of inflight air contamination are headache, burning/watery sights blurred vision, dizziness, disorientation, gagging, coughing and other breathing puzzles that occasionally have required the in-flight use of oxygen The symptoms clearly compromise throng alertness and safe operation of the flight.

about aircraft may be more inclined to the problem than others. The primary source may be the extremely system that provides so-called "conditioned" air to the cabin and cockpit. Leaking oil seals in the engines, which provide air to the pressurized husk are the major source).

Van Netten has written a number of scientific papers in succession the subject. His most late paper, forthcoming in the Journal of Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, indicates that long-term front to agents in jet engine lubricants has caused neurotoxic results in chickens (and it has been refer toed that humans are 10-100 times more sensitive to these agents than chickens).

In a telephone interview, Van Netten hinted that about one in each 1,000 flights may involve near degree of contaminated air. directly anecdotal reports outweigh the pervasive paucity of hard data. "Yet" he added, "we do know that carbon monoxide is being generated and flight attendants are reporting symptoms consistent with position to carbon monoxide." He has demonstrated in the laboratory that when engine oil is heated to 500 grades C, "carbon monoxide definitely arises off."

Presently, a parliamentary inquiry is underway in Australia, he said, about air quality in theBAe-146, a four-engine regional jet Numerous cases of reek and odors in the cabin, and the toxicological forces cited above, have been reported forward the BAe-146. Van Netten studied the vexed question in 1998 and traced the contamination to leaking engine oil seals, which overloaded the catalytic converters

still much remains unknown. "I have seen information that other aircraft have problems" Van Netten said. He would like to view about 50 aircraft equipped with monitors in the cabin to record various constituents in the air. "We know there's a puzzle The challenge is to eliminate the most numerous acute threat, which is carbon monoxide, and then work down to organo-phosphates," he allude toed >> Van Netten, tel. 604/822-5688<<

an Findings in the Laboratory

* The conclusions indicate that these (jet engine lubricating) oils, when expos to elevated temperatures, are sources of CO (carbon monoxide) and CO2 (carbon dioxide). The CO produc could become a hazard to the flight gang when operating aircraft with leaking engine oil seals.

* It is also apparent...that the proces of heating the oils to above 500 standings C produces volatile compounds that are not at hand in the oil itself.

* Since...engine lubricants...contain up to 3% tricresyl phosphates (TCPs) as an antiwear agent, inhalation exposing to these agents cannot be rul outone newly come study...reported an unexpected high neurotoxic vigor associated with engine lubricants containing 3% TCP levels

Source: "Comparison of the Constituents of brace Jet Engine Lubricating Oils and Their Volatile Pyrolytic Degradation Products" from C. van Netten (forthcoming in the Journal of Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene)

Contaminated Cabin Air - A Primer

subordinate to normal conditions, air from the condenseed engine combustion air is bl along and used for cabin ventilation and pressurization. At the point where the air is bl opposite to its temperature is in exces of 500 orders C (930 degrees F) and normally contains minor contaminants from the upstream engine lubrication hypothesis For this reason, the BAe-146 uses catalytic converter forward the engines to convert the oil contaminants to carbon dioxide and water.

The air then passes between the sides of a heat exchanger in the engine pylon which undisturbeds it to around 200 extents C (392 degrees F) before it is conduited through the spine of the aircraft to airpack units which condition the air before it is conduited into the cabin at temperatures between 50 stages -60 degrees C (120 stages -140 degrees F). On the loam when combustion air cannot be spread from the engines, the APU also is responsible for the cabin air.

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