Question

1) What type of air pollution exists in the cabins of airplanes?

2) Make a list of the pollutants and their possible health effects. How do these pollutants affect the biology of respiration?

3) How seriously are these air pollutants affecting the health of the passengers? How is this affecting the health of the flight crew?

4) How could these pollutants be avoided? Does this represent an unnecessary cost?

5) Overall, is this a serious health problem?

Answer 1

1. The air which is being supplied inside the air cabins are coming from two sources, one from recycling the air which the passengers inhale and exhale, and the other source is coming from the compressed air source from the engine known as the bleed air. A small leakage in the engine seals would lead to a mixture of dangerous pollutants into the bleed air, thus making the air quality inside the cabin very bad. This leads to air pollution inside the cabins.

2. Some of the pollutants and the health effects it would cause are:

(i) Organophosphates: Health effect- Weakness and paralysis, eye and skin irritation

(ii) Ozone: Health effects - airway inflammation, throat irritation

Both of the above pollutants can affect the respiration process, either via paralysis or due to irritation.

3. Most of the pollutants are hazardous and can give long term detrimental effects to the passengers as well as the flight crew. Some pollutants can even lead to neurological problems such as depression, schizophrenia etc.

4. The pollutants can be avoided if proper engine seal checks are in place and through real-time monitoring of cabin air quality. If the air quality drops below a particular value then oxygen masks can be used for better breathability and avoid detrimental health effects on the passengers. No, it does not represent an unnecessary cost, as the people are the customers and if at all this is causing detrimental effects then these things should be fixed as soon as possible.