Warning over toxic fumes in plane cabins as coroner calls for urgent action …

Sheriff Stanhope Payne has warned of dangers of exposure to cabin fumes
Senior coroner for Dorset said regulars could face ‘damage to their health’
Mr Payne is investigating death of 43-year-old BA pilot Richard Westgate
He has written to BA and Civil Aviation Authority asking for ‘urgent action’
Coroner has outlined five matters of concern over fumes in plane cabins

Emma Glanfield for MailOnline

Published:
10:36 GMT, 22 February 2015

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Updated:
11:46 GMT, 22 February 2015

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A coroner has warned about the potentially fatal dangers of toxic fumes in plane cabins following an investigation into the death of a British Airways pilot.

Sheriff Stanhope Payne, the senior coroner for Dorset, has warned that those who are regularly exposed to fumes in planes face ‘consequential damage to their health’.

The warning comes in a report into the death of co-pilot Richard Westgate, who died aged 43 in December 2012.

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British Airways co-pilot Richard Westgate (pictured) died aged 43 in December 2012. His family are convinced that he was the victim of ‘aerotoxic syndrome’ and was poisoned to death by toxic fumes from plane cabins

His family are convinced that he was the victim of ‘aerotoxic syndrome’ and was poisoned to death by toxic fumes after suffering years of persistent headaches and chronic fatigue while working for BA.

Mr Payne, who is due to open the inquest into Mr Westgate’s death formally within the next two months, said that examinations of Mr Westgate’s body ‘disclosed symptoms consistent with exposure to organophosphate compounds in aircraft cabin air’.

He has now written to BA and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to warn them that ‘there is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken’.

Giving the airline and regulator 56 days to respond, the coroner listed five serious matters of concern which he believes need to be urgently addressed to prevent future deaths.

They include:

That organo-phosphate compounds are present in aircraft cabin air
That people in aircraft cabins are exposed to them, with consequential damage to their health
That impairments to the health of those controlling the aircraft – i.e. the pilots – may lead to the death of the occupants
That there is no real-time monitoring to detect such compounds in the cabin air
That no account is taken of genetic variation in humans, such as would render individuals tolerant or intolerant of exposure.

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The matters of concern are in contrast to the view expressed by John Leahy, chief operating officer – customers of Airbus – who said last year that the issue of contaminated air was ‘absurd’.

‘Aerotoxic syndrome’ was first suggested as a medical term in 1999 by three experts, including a U.S. military doctor, and questions about contaminated air on flights have been raised in the House of Commons and House of Lords.

The fact that fumes occasionally cause health problems on planes — during what are known as ‘fume events’ — is acknowledged by airlines.

Most planes are installed with systems in which cabin air is drawn from the blisteringly hot heart of its engines. This is known today as ‘bleed air’, as it is effectively bled from the compression section of the engine, where oil lubricates the bearings.

There are seals designed to keep oil and bleed air apart — but they leak by virtue of their design, particularly with age or inadequate maintenance. This means that heated oil can contaminate the air, which passes straight into the aircraft cabin unfiltered.

Sheriff Stanhope Payne, the senior coroner for Dorset who is currently investigating BA pilot Richard Westgate’s death, has warned that those who are regularly exposed to plane fumes face ‘consequential damage to their health’. He has now prepared a report which calls for urgent changes to prevent future deaths

In small quantities, the toxins in engine oil may not be harmful but many experts agree that prolonged exposure to the organophosphates contained in engine oil is hazardous to health and can lead to long-term neurological and respiratory problems, and even brain tumours.

However, the airlines say that ‘fume events’ are not regular occurrences, so neither crew nor passengers are exposed to toxins for prolonged periods.

It is thought that only those who are frequent travellers and susceptible to the toxins are those who could become ill.

Mr Payne’s inquiry into Mr Westgate’s death has been welcomed by several groups who have campaigned about the dangers of ‘toxic fumes’ for years.

His report to BA and the CAA, which has been made under regulation 28 of the Coroners’ Investigation Regulations 2013, is based on evidence which he has so far been presented with.

Scotland-based aviation lawyer Frank Cannon is currently representing 50 former cabin crew who believe they have been the victims of ‘aerotoxic syndrome’.

He is confident that the coroner will find that contamination of cabin air played a role in Mr Westgate’s death.

‘If so, it would be the first time an independent judge in the UK has put this on record,’ he told the Mail.

‘It would be an enormously significant milestone and a wake-up call to the airline industry.’

Mr Cannon, of Cannon Law Practice, described Mr Payne’s report as ‘dynamite’.

Tristan Loraine (pictured), a former airline captain, believes the only long-term safe solution is ‘for all aircraft to be built with the unique bleed free architecture currently flying on the Boeing 787’

He added to The Telegraph: ‘It is the first time a British coroner has come to the conclusion that damage is being done by cabin air, something the industry has been denying for years.’

Tristan Loraine, co-chairman of the Global Cabin Air Quality Executive (GCAQE) and a former airline captain with 19 years’ experience, was forced to retire in 2006 on health grounds.

For years he suffered numbness in his fingers and feet, nausea and a chemical blister on the side of his nose — all symptoms consistent with ‘aerotoxic syndrome’, a term doctors and scientists use to cover a range of physical and neurological problems that they believe come from breathing the cocktail of hazardous chemicals pumped through an aircraft cabin’s air supply.

He believes the only long-term safe solution to cabin fumes is ‘for all aircraft to be built with the unique bleed free architecture currently flying onboard the Boeing 787’.

Dr Susan Michaelis, head of research for the GCAQE, agreed with Mr Loraine.

She said: ‘The industry was warned of the health risks of exposing crews and passengers to contaminated air as far back as 1954.

‘It’s only with the smoking ban in the late 1980s that the public finally realised the air they were inhaling could be contaminated.

‘The serious matters of concern raised by the senior coroner for Dorset show that no crew member or passenger should ever be exposed to contaminated air, especially when the industry has an alternative solution flying on the Boeing 787.’

Mr Cannon said that for most of the passenger population there is no immediate risk.

‘We don’t want to be scaremongers — not everyone who steps on board an aircraft will fall over,’ he said.

‘Our individual DNA dictates how well we can process toxins in any environment. But people are undoubtedly suffering, and what angers me is the failure of the industry to take action about something they have been aware of for years.’

Earlier this week, a spokesman for British Airways said the airline would not operate an aircraft if officials believed it posed a health or safety risk to passengers or crew.

A spokesman said: ‘The cockpit and cabin is the normal place of work of more than 15,000 cabin crew members and 3,500 pilots employed by British Airways and we see no trends in sickness rates which would indicate a link with cabin air issues.

‘A number of peer-reviewed scientific studies have demonstrated that there is no increase in overall cancer or mortality rates among cabin and flight crew.’

The airline said it could not comment on individual cases but said the coroner’s report would be considered and a response would be filed.

A spokesman told MailOnline today: ‘We will respond to the coroner in due course. It would be inappropriate to comment further while proceedings are continuing.’

‘AEROTOXIC SYNDROME’: HOW DAMAGING IS EXPOSURE TO CABIN AIR?

‘Aerotoxic syndrome’ is the term given to the ‘illness’ caused by exposure to contaminated air in jet aircraft.

Many former pilots, co-pilots and aircrew staff believe they have been subjected to long-term illnesses due to the amount of time they have spent exposed to cabin air and ‘toxic fumes’.

Numerous scientific studies have been carried out since the late 1970s to try and determine whether contaminated cabin air is the cause of chronic health problems.

Symptoms of ‘aerotoxic syndrome’ are said to include: Fatigue, blurred or tunnel vision, loss of balance, seizures, memory impairment, headaches, tinnitus, confusion, nausea, diarrhoea, breathing difficulties and irritation of the eyes, nose and upper airways.

If Sheriff Stanhope Payne, the senior coroner for Dorset, rules in the inquest into the death of British Airways co-pilot Richard Westgate that cabin air was partly to blame for his death, then it will be the first time an independent judge in the UK has put this on record.

The CAA, which revealed this week that oxygen masks are donned by pilots and crew on British flights about five times a week as a consequence of the way in which air is pumped into the cabin, said: ‘Passenger and flight crew safety is of paramount importance to the CAA, and we continue to work closely with the airline industry to maintain high safety standards on board UK aircraft.

‘Cabin fume events — where fumes or smoke are detected on board an aircraft — are infrequent, but when such incidents do occur, standard operating procedures are in place to help flight crew identify the source of the fume event and ensure the safety of the aircraft and its occupants.

‘In addition to our continuing work, the Department of Health’s Committee on Toxicity (CoT), an independent committee of experts in toxicology, carried out an extensive review of all available evidence in 2007 and made some recommendations for further research.

‘Subsequently the CoT published the outcome of the additional review in December 2013, and concluded that while it’s possible that individuals have developed symptoms, it is unlikely these symptoms are caused by exposure to a toxic substance during a fume event.’

The CAA told ITV News that Mr Payne’s report is ‘nothing that passengers or crew should be overly concerned about’.

The authority said it acknowledges that ‘aerotoxic syndrome’ is a condition that exists but insists occurrences are rare.

It also confirmed that it has received the coroner’s report and will look at it in detail before preparing a response.

Mr Payne’s report comes ahead of a meeting in London this week, hosted by the International Transport Workers’ Federation, to examine the issue of contaminated air on planes.

An ITF spokesman said: ‘There is growing published evidence of the toxicity of these oil fumes and the increase in reported fume incidents in which flight safety was compromised because of crew member impairment.’

MailOnline has contacted the CAA for further comment.