Stop! Time is running out: Exposure to toxic fumes in aircraft

Stop! Time is running out
Identifying toxic parallels and making connections
by Bearnairdine Beaumont, bee572.substack.com, 2 December 2024

Photo ‘Middle of Nowhere’ by David Kovalenko ©

Despite decades of manufacturing experience with  the best technicians in the world, improving and modernizing aircraft in detail and performance, they still overlooked a simple, small, and, in comparison, cheap monitoring system to warn of the presence of harmful fumes entering cockpits and cabins, which happens because the filtration system and seals are not 100% functional.

Pilots, cabin crew, and passengers continue to sustain acute and chronic injuries as a result of toxic exposures, a fact that the aviation industry and our governments continue to downplay or flat-out deny.

In some people, having been exposed to toxic/chemical substances, possibly over a long period of time, the immune system becomes overloaded as it is increasingly poisoned. A TILT (toxicant-induced loss of tolerance) event occurs.

United Kingdom: Ministry of Defense admits death of decorated RAF pilot from rare cancer after he was exposed to toxic exhaust fumes

The Ministry of Defense admits death of decorated RAF pilot from rare cancer after he was exposed to toxic exhaust fumes

BEARNAIRDINE BEAUMONT, 9 July 2024

This is a very important verdict - because it paves the way for civil action.

(Photo): Late Squadron Leader Kai Macnaughton pictured with his wife Clare

Following its 'groundbreaking' agreement in the High Court to take responsibility for the hearing loss suffered by former armed services people, the Ministry of Defense has now acknowledged that exposure to hazardous fumes caused cancer in certain military personnel.

There are currently about 100 people wishing to sue the Ministry of Defense on the grounds that poisonous fumes caused their or a family member's cancer.

Engine jet exhaust gasses, which include benzene carcinogens, "were being sucked through the cabin and out again through the cockpits - mixing with the air which everyone on board the aircraft was breathing," according to leading barrister Jonathan Dingle of Normanton Chambers.

SWISS Pilot Files Lawsuit Alleging that Airline has Endangered Flight Safety

We have purposely kept mention of the Covid-19 "vaccination" out of our blog, however, as we are following the issue of "aerotoxic syndrome", we are posting here the latest article from the substack on this subject. Mention of inoculating aviation crew against Covid-19 spelled the demise of a long period of published readers' mail in the Tribune de Genève and other Swiss media. After my comment had been approved for publication in June 2022 by the person responsible for that column, I was told by the editor of the newspaper that it contained "erroneous information".   Comment extract:  "Swiss pilot (...)  is right to question the safety of Covid "vaccines". No one could assure her that 'the injection would have no impact on her health and safety in flight: 'Safety always comes first in flight.' "

We are heartened to learn that now a Swiss pilot has filed a lawsuit with the District Attorney of Basel and the International Criminal Court against Lufthansa subsidiary Swiss, alleging that the airline has endangered flight safety. The Lufthansa subsidiary Swiss introduced compulsory vaccination for all staff on December 1st, 2021. "The plaintiff contends that Swiss has ignored all publicly available reports of side effects and continues to require its employees to be vaccinated, which endangers flight safety."

SWISS Pilot files Lawsuit

by BEARNAIRDINE BEAUMONT, 19 May 2024

A Swiss pilot has filed a lawsuit with the District Attorney of Basel/Switzerland and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Den Haag against Lufthansa subsidiary Swiss, alleging that the airline has endangered flight safety.

The airline industry keeps detailed records of distress signals pilots can communicate with. I.E. Mayday" is used in the most urgent life-threatening situations, while "pan-pan" indicates urgent situations that are serious but not life-threatening.

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

'Allergic' Reaction After Exposure to Toxic Fumes in a ‘Top Gun’Jet

'Allergic' Reaction After Exposure to Toxic Fumes in a ‘Top Gun’Jet
Jet fuel in the blood?
by BEARNAIRDINE BEAUMONT, Take-Off: Aviation's Wounded Canaries, 12 Dec. 2023

Photo by Jonathan Ridley on Unsplash

Miles Teller garnered worldwide success starring in the hit action film Top Gun: Maverick - in this short clip taken from an interview on the Seth Myers show he talks about his reaction following exposure to toxic fumes in a ‘Top Gun’ jet.

The story in the video sounds hilarious doesn’t it - especially Tom Cruise’s response.

But, here it comes: Did you know that aircrew working commercial jets are exposed to those fumes every time they go to work and that reactions to the toxic substances in those fumes in aircraft cabin breathing air can occur at any time?

Miles Teller is very fortunate that he chose to be an actor and not an airline pilot, still, he reacted to a once-off flight, that has to get you thinking.

Aerotoxic Syndrome: Unprotected Flight Crews And Passengers

Unprotected Flight Crews And Passengers
Aerotoxic Syndrome: The Silence Continues

by BEARNAIRDINE BEAUMONT, "Take-Off: Aviation's Wounded Canaries", 21 Nov. 2023

image ©aerotoxic.org

The problem of cabin air contamination in airliners, which can make flight crews seriously ill, has been known for decades. But the airlines are still playing down the health and safety risks.

Last March, in front of Jetblue's head office in New York, dozens of flight attendants chanted: "Fume events are real!” It was an unprecedented demonstration, designed to sound the alarm about the incidents of fumes, known as "fume events", that occur on board aircraft.

They generate unpleasant odors, contaminate the air and, as MEDIAPART has detailed, cause a range of neurological and respiratory symptoms and disabling disorders in aircrew, known as aerotoxic syndrome.

"The American Aviation Federation and aircraft manufacturers are ignoring this health risk, even after reports of crews falling ill", says Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat senator from Connecticut, who also introduced a bill for the third time in March calling for training and protection for passengers.

Aerotoxic Syndrome: The Scientific Controversy

The Grey Area That Never Benefits The Victims
Aviation's "Wounded Canaries" or Aerotoxic syndrome: The Scientific Controversy
by BEARNAIRDINE BEAUMONT,

Take-Off: Aviation's Wounded Canaries, NOV 8, 2023

Is aerotoxic syndrome a new occupational disease? Described more than twenty years ago based on symptoms and disorders reported to doctors by numerous pilots and flight attendants, it is not recognized as such. It is still the subject of scientific controversy. This is "a denial", says Eric BAILET, a former pilot who founded the Association of Victims of Aerotoxic Syndrome (AVSA) in 2016. “Pilots are poisoned by the air they breathe on board aircraft," he explains. The pressurization system used on virtually all commercial aircraft today was adopted in 1955. Almost immediately, undesirable effects on crews were reported and the cause was established: the air supplied was taken from the engine compressors and contaminated by leaking lubricating oil. When heated to high temperatures, these oils can release dangerous compounds, including neurotoxic organophosphates.

Justice Recognizes the Reality of Aerotoxic Syndrome

Sick Pilots: Justice recognizes the Reality of Aerotoxic Syndrome
by BEARNAIRDINE BEAUMONT - Take-Off: Aviation's Wounded Canaries
NOV 2, 2023

image source © FL360aero

As first reported by MEDIAPART France, on October 20, 2023, the Bordeaux Judicial Court recognized the causal link between this illness and occupational exposure, for yet another affected pilot. The judge relied in particular on the medical expertise of the head of the occupational and environmental pathologies department at Nantes University Hospital, according to whom the disorders reported by the pilot "are part of an ‘Aerotoxic Syndrome’ caused by the short- and long-term effects of exposure to oil-fumes-contaminated air in aircraft cabins.

However, as previously mentioned in other articles of mine don't look for ‘Aerotoxic Syndrome‘ in the international occupational disease classification tables (ICD-10): it is still not/not yet listed there. You can find my articles on the subject on my Academia.edu website here and here. The term Aerotoxic Syndrome (AS) was coined in 1999 and described as a medical condition by three scientists from France, the USA, and Australia who had independently of each other come to the same conclusions and then networked and put their findings together. AS is a collection of very diverse symptoms reported by aircrews who have been victims of cabin and cockpit air contamination events which are commonly referred to as "fume events".

The Tip of the Iceberg: Some Recent Aircraft Cabin Fume Events

There is strong evidence that a certain percentage of people experience acute symptoms as a consequence of fume events. Very often pilots and/or cabin crew members become incapacitated, but also passengers can be affected and are rushed to hospitals for emergency treatments.

THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG: SOME RECENT AIRCRAFT CABIN FUME EVENTS
Pilot incapacitation? No - also Cabin Crew and Passengers fall ill
by BEARNAIRDINE BEAUMONT, 11 July 2023
and Guest Writer Trudie Dadd - both are former, medically retired Cabin Crew.

Photo by Sasha Freemind on Unsplash

Regularly, without the public noticing, so-called “odors” or “smoke” on board aircraft worldwide cause pilots to declare a Pan Pan or even Mayday. Some make an emergency landing and are received by ambulances after landing. Very often pilots and/or cabin crew members become incapacitated, but also passengers can be affected and are rushed to hospitals for emergency treatments. There is strong evidence that a certain percentage of people experience acute symptoms as a consequence of fume events.

Many chemicals found in aircraft oil and their fumes are endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDC) and can cause mitochondrial dysfunction which means that exposure to these chemicals, particularly as mixtures can cause, even at low levels irreparable harm to health.* The effects of repeated exposures are known to be cumulative.

You can view a collection of actually reported smoke/ odor/ fumes here for MAY 2023 and here for JUNE 2023. The following examples are the first from July 1st.

Underreporting is well-known, so there could be many more.

Medical Health Concerns at Altitude: Toxic Fumes Plus Injected Foreign Substances

Medical health concerns at altitude: toxic fumes plus injected foreign substances
Attention Aircrew - do you belong to the 30%?
by Bee, bee572.substack.com/, 1st June 2022

The issue I intend to talk about has been known since the 1950s - roughly 70 years - and nothing has been done to address it.

In airplanes, the air in the cabin is still ‘bled off' (by the engines), with well-known consequences for flight safety and health, particularly that of the flight crew.

The industry knows the problem: planes draw air from turbines.

• High-performance turbines require synthetic oils to prevent overheating.
• TCP (tricresyl phosphate), an organophosphate–base utilized in insecticides and chemical warfare chemicals, is hazardous and was the first substance identified to be a severe health hazard in cabin air.
• TCP is a nerve toxin and banned in vehicle engine lubricants, but is in jet engine oil.
• More than 50 health-hazardous chemicals are known.
• Hydraulic fluids and de-icing fluids (in winter) evaporate and manage to get sucked inside.

Aerotoxic Association Submits Evidence of Devastating Personal Experiences to International Criminal Court

Aerotoxic Association Ltd. 27 Old Gloucester St., 

Bloomsbury, London. WC1N 3AX UK

Office of the Prosecutor
The International Criminal Court The Hague
Information & Evidence Unit
PO Box 19519
2500 CM The Hague
The Netherlands

October 11, 2018

OPEN LETTER

Toxic Air in Public Transport Aircraft Cabins

As chairman of the Aerotoxic Association (AeA)*, I am writing to the International Criminal Court The Hague (ICC) to provide it with crucial evidence in a matter of public interest concerning health and safety in jet aircraft.

In May 2018 the AeA called for updates, evidence and testimonies from the international public and aircrew, in addition to the countless testimonies already received since 2006 concerning the issue of toxic substances contaminating cabin air in Public Transport aircraft.

UK Civil Aviation Authority: Information for Health Professionals on Aircraft Fume Events:

Aircraft Fume Events
Information for health professionals on aircraft fume eventsUK Civil Aviation Authority

Doctors and other health professionals may see patients who report symptoms following a ‘fume’ event – an unusual odour, mist or smoke – on an aircraft. The pattern of symptoms reported is quite variable and health professionals have asked for guidance on how best to manage such patients.

The Care Pathway has been developed by an independent working group including experts in toxicology, epidemiology, aviation medicine and primary care, in order to provide advice to health professionals in managing such patients. The working group has also developed an information sheet for patients.

Contaminated Air on Planes Linked to Crew Ill-Health, Study Finds

A pilot in his cockpit.  Scientists examined more than 200
aircrew for the study.  Photo:  Chris Pancewicz/Alamy

Contaminated air on planes linked to crew ill-health, study finds
Press Association/The Guardian,

19 June 2017

Research looking at symptoms from dizziness to breathing and vision problems said to have ‘flight safety consequences’

Flying a plane should come with a hazard warning, according to researchers, after a study found a link between contaminated air and the health of the crew.

A new study led by the University of Stirling is said to be the first of its kind to look in depth at the health of those suspected to have been exposed to contaminated air during their work.

It showed a clear link between being exposed to air supplies contaminated by engine oil and other aircraft fluids, and a variety of health problems, researchers said.

New Health Concerns - and Cancer Link - Over Toxic Cabin Air Breathed by 3.5 Billion Passengers Each Year

Air on almost all commercial passenger planes is bled
through the engines to the cabin. 
Credit:  Freebird7977 - Fotolia

New health concerns - and cancer link - over toxic cabin air breathed by 3.5 billion passengers each year
by Hugh Morris, The Telegraph, 20 June 2017

Toxic cabin air breathed by passengers, pilots and cabin crew is linked to cancer, chronic fatigue and neurological problems, according to new research in a World Health Organisation (WHO) journal.

The Public Health Panorama report into so-called aerotoxic syndrome - the name given to the health effects of exposure to bleed air, used to pressurise aircraft cabins, that has been contaminated with chemicals such as engine oil - found a clear link between both short- and long-term symptoms and illnesses and toxic fume events.

It said that in 2015 more than 3.5 billion passengers and 500,000 pilots and cabin crew were exposed to low levels of engine oils in the air.

British Airways Pilot Died 'After He Was Poisoned by Contaminated Cockpit Air but Doctors Did Not Believe Him'

Prior to his death, Richard Westgate instructed lawyers to
sue BA for health and safety breaches as he was convinced
his problems were related to being exposed to toxic chemicals.

British Airways pilot died 'after he was poisoned by contaminated cockpit air but doctors did not believe him' his emotional twin tells inquest
by Alexander Robertson For Mailonline,
6 April 2017

• Richard Westgate said ill health was caused by toxic fumes filtering into cockpit
• The BA pilot grew 'angry and frustrated' by UK doctors who could not cure him
• Suffered severe headaches, sight problems and insomnia before he died in 2012
• His twin brother told Salisbury Coroner's Court that he felt 'let down' by doctors
• But coroner ruled so-called aerotoxic syndrome will not be considered at inquest

A British Airways pilot who claimed his ill health was caused by fumes filtering into the cockpit was let down by doctors who did not believe him, his brother has said.

“Asbestos of the Sky” - The Aviation Industry’s Darkest Coverup

We are posting just two excerpts from this excellent article. 

Full text available here.

“Asbestos of the Sky” - The Aviation Industry’s Darkest Coverup
by Sayer Ji, Founder, greenmedinfo.com, 

3 January 2017

“Asbestos of the Sky”

The aviation industry hangs its hat on air travel being "the safest way to travel." The truth, however, is that it has harbored a dark secret since its inception: it's poisoning its passengers and crew due to deeply flawed aircraft design, de-prioritizing safety in favor of profit.

In flight, every crew member and passenger relies on an air supply. The assumption, of course, is that this air is filtered if not fresh. Perhaps you have sensed (and promptly dismissed) that there may be quality control issues around cabin air. The problem goes further than that, however, and astoundingly, this is not by accident but by design.

Toxic Fumes on Board: Swiss Warns Its Staff

Toxic fumes on board: Swiss warns its staff
by Andreas Maurer, Schweiz am Sonntag,

26 November 2016 (translated by Google with grammatical corrections)

Andreas Maurer is an editor at "Schweiz am Sonntag".

An investigative report shows how contaminated air enters the cockpit.

In the cockpit and in the cabin of the Airbus A330 of Swiss the smell of hydraulic oil spread five minutes after take-off in Zurich. The 34-year-old pilot experienced headaches and put on the oxygen mask...  The pilot made the right decision, says the Swiss safety investigation authority (SUST). It has published its report on the "serious incident" of 26 November 2015 this week. The hydraulic oil from the manufacturer Exxon, which got into the air, was a potential hazard. The passengers and crew were exposed to the toxic vapors for another hour. The fully-fueled aircraft was too heavy for a landing. Therefore, it circulated an hour in the waiting queue to burn kerosene. Several passengers and flight attendants suffered nausea and headaches. A stewardess suffered disturbances of taste and smell the following day.

Easy Jet Pilot France Aerotoxic Syndrome Litigation

Easy Jet Pilot France Aerotoxic Syndrome Litigation
(article from Aviation Travel Writer)

by John Hoyte, aerotoxic.org, 17 October 2016

The airline pilots, the disease of the cockpits:
( Pilotes de ligne, la maladie des cockpits )

For the first time in France, a pilot removal complaint against his company. He believes that the air circulating in the aircraft would cause a “aérotoxique syndrome“.

Collectives of seafarers and passengers have given a name to their combat: The “aérotoxique syndrome”. (Sipa Press)

Can flying a plane be dangerous to your health? Monday, Eric B., Captain among EasyJet, will file a complaint against the airline for involuntary violations of physical integrity, endangering the lives of others and… deception on the quality of the air”. He is convinced to have been “poisoned due to small fire” in his cockpit. He is 53 years old, which makes him one of the most senior pilots at the low-cost airline that he has integrated into since February 2002. After the end of the year 2009, he began suffering from a number of disorders including (nausea, gastrointestinal, fatigue, hyperventilation, etc. ) which have led to a chain of neurological and mental judgment diseases. In 2012, his state of health has deteriorated, as well as its relations with his employer. The center of expertise of Aviation Medicine of Toulouse-Blagnac issued to him a “medical incapacity Temporary” in June 2015. The former Airbus Instructor then lost his license to fly and was later nailed to the ground, no longer allowed to fly. He now seeks an explanation to his health problems.