Tristan Loraine: "All air passengers inhale hazardous substances, it's time to fix it!"

“This applies to everyone who flies. All air passengers inhale compounds hazardous to health, but many do not even know about it”, - Tristan emphasized.

As Novye Izvestia found out in a conversation with Tristan Loraine, the non-profit organization Global Cabin Air Quality Executive (GCAQE) was founded in 2006 and is the world's leading group of airline employees dealing with the issue of air pollution in civil aviation.

The GCAQE website says: "We are global coalition of health and safety advocates committed to raising awareness and finding solutions to poor air quality on aircraft".

GCAQE is currently supported by over one million aviation workers from different countries, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the European Transport Workers Federation (ETF), the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) and the European Flight Attendants Association (EurECCA).

“With the assistance of your online-media, I would like to talk to any Russian companies who have the technology or the capabilities to develop real time contaminated air warning systems on aircraft and total cabin air filtration systems to remove heated engine oil or hydraulic fluids from the breathing air supply”, - Tristan Loraine noted in an interview with Novye Izvestia.

You can ask for his contacts in the editorial office.

Tristan also announced that a large-scale international conference devoted to the problem of contaminated air in the cabins - Aircraft Cabin Air International Conference 2021 - is being held at the site https://www.aircraftcabinair.com/ until March 18.

“This is the largest conference on contaminated air in the world; I am proud to have organized such a powerful event. Representatives of the aviation industry often claim that the air quality in an airplane is better than at home or in the office. But it is not true. Our war keeps going!", - said Tristan Loraine.

The Global Cabin Air Quality Executive (GCAQE) has launched its ‘Clean Air Campaign’calling on regulators and Governments globally, to mandate the introduction of effective'bleed air' filters and contaminated air warning sensors on passenger aircraft.To support their campaign the GCAQE has released a brief educational film in over 40 languages, including Russian.

They have also released a short animated film explaining the basics of the airsupply system on aircraft. The GCAQE campaign is supported by representatives of over 1 million aviation workers, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the European Transport Workers' Federation(ETF), the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) and the European Cabin CrewAssociation (EurECCA).

Both films are available at the GCAQE Clean Air Campaign page at:https://www.gcaqe.org/cleanair

Over the last 20 years, there have been over 50 recommendations and findings made by 12 air accident departments globally, directly related to contaminated air exposures onpassenger jet aircraft.

However, commercial aircraft continue to fly, with no contaminated airwarning systems to notify passengers and crews when the air they are breathing iscontaminated.The design flaw relates to the way the breathing air supply on all passenger jet aircraft(except the Boeing 787) is supplied. The breathing air is provided to passengers and crewsunfiltered directly from the compression section of the engines or from the Auxiliary PowerUnit (APU), a small engine in the tail of the aircraft. This is a process known as ‘bleed air’because it is ‘bled’ from the hot compression section of the engine. The ‘bleed air’ is notfiltered and is known to be contaminated with synthetic jet engine oils1 and hydraulic fluids.

The cans of the jet engine oils and hydraulic fluid products that are contaminating thebreathing air supply and to which people have been exposed, clearly state: “Do not breathe mist or vapour from heated product”, “Risk of causing cancer”, “Risk of infertility”, “Risk of neurological effects” etc…

And this is what is said in the document of the "Clean air campaign", which Tristan Loraine sent to Novye Izvestia, says:

The industry frequently states the air quality in a plane is better than in a house or office. Despite this statement, the industry filters the ‘bleed air’ used for the Fuel Tank InertingSystem (FTIS). FTIS was introduced after the TWA 800 tragedy to prevent a fuel tank ignition.The FITS system works by providing a nitrogen rich environment in the fuel tank. The system also uses bleed air, but because of the presence of engine oil fumes in the ‘bleed air’ and theiradverse effects on the system, this ‘bleed air’ is filtered.

Why does the industry not also filterthe ‘bleed air’ people are breathing? A short video explaining this key fact is on the campaignwebsite page at: gcaqe.org/cleanair

Both jet engine oils and hydraulic fluids contain organophosphates. These chemicals havebeen found in hundreds of swab samples carried out on the interior surfaces of aircraft and inmany air monitoring studies.

GCAQE Spokesperson Captain Tristan Loraine stated: “In the GCAQE’s view, despite knowing about this issue for decades, aviation regulators aroundthe world such as the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European UnionAviation Safety Agency (EASA) have, on this specific problem, put the corporate interests of theaerospace industry ahead of flight safety and public health. They have failed to mandate theinstallation of effective contaminated air warning systems or ‘bleed air’ filtration systems. They have also failed to require airlines to inform crews or passengers about these exposures. Instead,they claim the air in aircraft is better than in your home and continue to call for more research. The sole result of calling for further research will be to delay having to take mitigating actionswhich are needed now, to finally resolve this public health and flight safety issue”.

Flight safety has been often compromised due to crew being impaired or even totallyincapacitated from exposure to contaminated air. Crews and passengers have suffered bothshort and long-term health effects as a consequence of these exposures. Some crews havebeen ill health retired from these exposures. As documented by Howard et al (2017/2018), when addressing the aetiology of aerotoxic syndrome, there is evidence that, in addition tothe complex mixture of fugitive chemical emissions continually present in cabin air, there isalso an aerosol of ultrafine particles (UFPs), bringing important health consequences ofchronical exposure to an aerosol of UFPs.

From 15 to 18 March 2021, the GCAQE will host the ‘2021 Aircraft Cabin Air Conference’(aircraftcabinair.com).

This will be the largest conference ever held on these issues. It will take place over 4 days from 1500 to 2000 GMT daily and among the sponsors; there will be anumber of companies displaying potential solutions and emerging technologies for aircraftoperators. Technologies like new total cabin air filtration systems, warning sensors and catalytic converters. In addition to the ‘Clean Air Campaign’ and the ‘2021 Aircraft Cabin Air Conference’, theGCAQE has also recently created the first ever, global reporting system for contaminated airevents, known as GCARS. The ‘Global Cabin Air Reporting System’, which anyone can use, isavailable at: https://gcars.app/

GCAQE Spokesperson Captain Tristan Loraine also stated: “The industry has achieved so many great things in the last 50 years. It has taken numeroussteps to enhance flight safety but sadly on this issue, it has failed. The regulators say they need toknow what chemicals are present during a contaminated air event before they can consider mandating new technologies to mitigate the problem. They knew over 20 years ago what chemicals were present, as they have data from the investigation into the total incapacitation oftwo pilots on a domestic Swedish flight known as the ‘Malmo’ incident. It is unbelievable thatthey continue to fail to fix this basic design flaw”.

Many crew unions and the GCAQE have been working with industry for over a decade toagree an acceptable air quality standard onboard aircraft. The ability to come to a consensuson this issue has recently been questioned following industry action to delay a proposed new CEN standard.

• Cabin breathing air on all aircraft apart from the Boeing 787 is taken directly from theengines and provided unfiltered to the aircraft. This is known as 'Bleed Air'.

• Bleed air is known to become contaminated with engine oils and/or hydraulic fluids.These are hazardous including to the unborn.

• Contaminated bleed air events have been recognised as occurring since the 1950s.

• No aircraft currently flying has any form of detection system fitted to warn whenthese events occur.

• Flight safety is being compromised by contaminated air events.

• Crew and passengers have been reporting short and long-term health effects as aconsequence of exposure to contaminated air.

• Contaminated air events are not rare and known to be under reported.

• Passengers are never told about the risks or these exposures.

• The aviation industry has and continues to fail to adequately address this issue.

• In 2010, the High Court of Australia upheld a ruling that inhaling heated engine oilfumes were harmful (Joanne Turner case) and twenty-one years after theCompensation Court of New South Wales in Australia ruled, on 28 April 1999 in theAlysia Chew case. Alysia Chew had flown for Ansett and East West Airlines and hadbeen exposed to fumes on the BAe 146 between January 1992 and October 1993. TheNew South Wales Compensation Court reviewed her claim that she was: “exposed tofumes, toxic substances and other irritants whilst carrying out her duties as a flightattendant” and ruled she had: “Suffered injury arising out of and in the course of heremployment”.

• Two recent feature documentaries have been released on these issues ‘EverybodyFlies’ (2019) and ‘American 965’ (2021).

Excerpt from Global Cabin Air Quality Executive documentary Call for Filters and Sensors:

“Today pilots can tell you the temperature inside the plane, the temperature outside the plane, but they cannot tell you anything about the quality of the air they breathe and the people on board.

I am a former airline pilot and have been investigating air pollution for almost 25 years.

I have a doctorate and a master's degree in this subject and am a qualified aviation accident researcher.

Aviation regulators, aircraft manufacturers and airlines have done and continue to do everything in their power to delay the action needed to address this issue.

They are afraid of liability issues and simply ignore the evidence that clearly shows that this is a health and safety risk that needs to be addressed.

How many more crews will be weakened or incapacitated before the industry can solve this problem?

Instead of solving the problem, they are simply doing more and more research with the sole purpose of delaying the need to take steps to install filters and sensors on airplanes and take care of people".

What we don't know is the consequences of exposure to unborn babies. Sometimes they have a very "narrow window" of development, and exposure to such air can cause serious deficits in the further development of the fetus. We know that these compounds, which evaporate from engine oil, can affect the development of an unborn child. Surely you wouldn't want this to happen to your unborn child?

It is time for the aviation industry, politicians and trade unions to work together to demand the implementation of warning systems and general cabin air filtration systems.

...All crews and passengers deserve to breathe clean air. It's time to install efficient sensors and bleed air filtration systems on passenger jets!

Be informed and demand the change - the industry has had ample time to solve this issue".