Just because you detect a dirty sock odor doesn't mean you're having a TCP exposure. Sometimes a dirty water separator will smell like dirty socks and other times it can smell that way when operating in a humid climate. TCPs do put off a dirty sock smell, so how do you know if you're being exposed to TCPs, or just simple harmless humidity? I've been told by Dr. Furlong that there is a detector that is capable of detecting TCPs but when offered to some of the European operators they refused out of fear of liability should TCPs be detected onboard one of their flights.

I've pushed hard for ALPA to take a strong stance on this issue and get these detectors on our planes here in the U.S. but to date they've shown little interest in protecting the health of their pilots.