Aircraft Cabin Fumes to be Investigated
May 31st, 2008 Posted in Airlines
Cranfield University be will working with the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to lead research into aircraft cabin air quality.
The research will be lead by Professor Helen Muir, a world-recognised expert in aviation safety, who will lead a team of experts over the next year to determine if the air in flight decks, specifically the BAe 146 and Boeing 757, contain pollutants that can be dangerous to pilots and passengers.
Professor Muir’s team will independently examine what happens if engine oil fumes get into the air in the cabin, creating ‘fume events’. They will analyse what these fumes contain and if any contaminants exist in sufficient quantities to potentially harm crew and passengers. The research is being undertaken for the Department for Transport in response to the Committee on Toxicity (COT) recommendation from its review of evidence relating to cabin air. Fume events are thought to occur in roughly 1 in 2000 flights overall. The COT said that without further research it could neither confirm nor rule out a link between cabin air and ill health among pilots.
The main objectives of Professor Muir’s preliminary work were firstly to determine the appropriate methodology and equipment to be used to examine what volatile organic compounds or semi-volatile organic compounds are in the air and in what quantities. No one has yet captured these samples of cabin air during fume events and analysed the samples to see what they contain. Many chemical smells on planes last less than a minute and are unpredictable, as such it is important that the appropriate methodology was developed to capture them.
The second phase of the research will be to actually carry out the experiments. Cranfield University researchers will travel in the flight deck of the BAe 146 and Boeing 757, two aircraft models which have had reports of ‘fume events’, with two sensing devices capable of picking up minute traces of air contaminants. Air samples will be taken during all stages of flight from before, during and after the flight.
The experiments will be conducted on 100 flights and the information gathered will be reported in 2009 once all results are analysed.
As there are no published studies of air sampling during fume events anywhere the only way to resolve this matter is through top quality science. Poor science never ends a debate and would not influence aviation regulators around the world to take action.
Source: Cranfield University Press Release
Further reading: BBC News report by Tom Symonds and video 1 and 2.
Tags: air travel, Airlines, BBC News, cabin fumes, cranfield university
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