Aerotoxic Syndrome

Following is an interview with Bearnairdine Beaumont, 21 years aircrew, forced to "medically" retire due to brain and nervous system injury caused by unfiltered toxic fumes in the aircraft cabin. She is the author of the Substack, "Take-Off: Aviation's Wounded Canaries" and responsible for the site, "Unfiltered" with invaluable information on the aerotoxic syndrome. 

Aerotoxic Syndrome - Interview with Bearnairdine Beaumont
Unbekoming, 1st May 2024

1. Bearnairdine, you've had a fascinating journey from working as a medical laboratory assistant to a flight attendant to now championing the cause of toxic fumes in aircraft cabins. Can you share how your own health issues as a flight attendant sparked this passionate advocacy?

I began my flying career after working over 5 years as a laboratory assistant. Following in my father’s footsteps who was a pilot, I planned to fly until retirement age which was 55 at the airline I worked for. At the age of 40, my health deteriorated rapidly. I had the weirdest symptoms, which at first were put down to allergies. I felt sick on flights, especially long-haul flights. The fumes entering the plane before and during take-off made me feel ill. The smell in the airplane when boarding the first thing was giving me headaches. Also, on many of those flights we had to spray insecticides depending on which country we flew to or came from, they made me cough and sneeze and made my skin itchy and red. I often felt dizzy and overwhelmingly tired, confused, and had trouble remembering the names of my team – I forgot them instantly after they introduced themselves. One day I couldn’t remember how I got home. After my next flight, I had to stop my car at the side of the road I felt so ill and so deathly tired my eyes kept closing. When I woke up I had slumped over in my driver's seat hanging in the safety belt unconscious – 1 mile from my home. The really scary part was that I couldn’t figure out how to start my car – I couldn’t find the ignition, and when I finally did, I couldn’t coordinate my feet and hands to change gears and accelerate to get the car moving - it seemed I had forgotten how to drive. That’s when I knew something was very wrong. I searched for help and found it. Then my union asked me to give some interviews since they were dealing with the issue and needed somebody to talk about it in the media. And that’s when it all began.

Continue reading:
https://unbekoming.substack.com/p/aerotoxic-syndrome