This is an issue rarely spoken about which affects the health and safety of every person who travels by plane. The lies, deception and collusion which run throughout our legislative representatives in Washington due to the powerful aviation lobby of Boeing and Airbus. The aviation establishment has successfully hidden this health danger from the American people since the early 1950s. Many passengers are completely unaware of aviation history. It was during 1963 that airlines and manufacturers quietly switched air sources for aircraft.
That year aircraft moved from a fresh air source from separate fuselage intake valves to contaminated air that is now taken in from the engines, and is called, "bleed air." The next huge danger began in 1978 during airline deregulation. During this year that the crucial engine wet seals maintenance replacements were extended from 5,000 flight miles to every 30,000 flight miles. Ever since this time the contamination of the breathing air, causing visible and invisible fume events, went from 2% worldwide to where we are now. Today we have fume events daily and around the world, all airlines, and practically all aircraft, needlessly endangering the health of thousands of passengers and crew by this blatant maintenance and construction negligence.
Anyone who has ever come forward to speak out about this problem has faced character assassination, ridicule, and even termination from their airline careers. Countless injured people continue to suffer in silence while others have lost their careers by becoming permanently disabled or are dying due to having been exposed to these neurotoxins. The few brave doctors and scientists who have risked their medical careers to go on record refer to this health condition as Aerotoxic Syndrome, the new "asbestos of the airline industry."
These fume event exposures create dangerous bodily reactions which include: violent regurgitations, severe migraines, inflamed nerve endings of the brain, disorientation, incapacitation, blurred vision, respiratory distress, heart spasms, memory loss and compromised cognitive brain functions. Cells and nerves become damaged, often permanently. If visible fume events are frequent or if for instance crews and frequent flyers are constantly exposed to even low level, low dose residual toxic levels, it can lead to chronic sickness which does not go away. Each in-breath of contaminated cabin air is a new dose.
Those who develop the chronic sickness and continue to fly have either became disabled or died of sudden cardiac arrest as the toxins have moved into their heart tissues, causing Lymphocytic Myocarditis, whereby the toxins caused inflammation of the heart muscle. These neurotoxins were found in the heart tissues during autopsies of deceased Aerotoxic Syndrome diagnosed pilots and cabin crew. (ref: Dr Michel Mulder of the Netherlands.) Specific protein enzymes are found at highly elevated levels, which are only present if a person has been exposed to these toxins. (ref: Dr Mohamed Abou-Donia of Duke University Medical Center.)
This is a highly important story which affects us all: passengers, families, the elderly, babies, pregnant mothers-to-be, and crew, with pilots in danger of becoming incapacitated in flight ! This is of huge importance to cabin crew and frequent flyers in particular, as they are the largest high-risk group for this disorder. When you travel on an airplane and suddenly, for no reason become violently “air sick”, or after coming home you have headaches, disorientation, migraines, flu-like symptoms and fatigue, you could be suffering from a poisoning. The airlines try to tell you that this is just “Jet Lag.” But more often than not this is an attempt to cover up the real cause. Airlines have been hiding this information from passengers and cabin crew for over 60 years. Neurotoxins in the cabin air, such as i.e.: TCP Organophosphates and other so-called (VOCs) Volatile Organic Compounds that are neuro-toxic and cancerous. These chemicals can lead to chronic illness, disable you mentally and physically and even cause death.
Aerotoxic Syndrome: This condition was first diagnosed and named by the French medical scientist Dr. Jean- Christophe Balouet on October 20, 1999. This was done in collaboration with his fellow scientists, Dr. Harry Hoffman and Professor Chris Winder. There are presently over 250,000 cabin crew and passengers worldwide who are now diagnosed with this type of health condition.
Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced an amendment in 2010 to research this issue. It has now been six years since the order to move this legislation from the token research category into action with implementation. Passenger rights and flight attendant groups have begun to rally with a petition and writing campaign which will place pressure of our legislative representatives to take action with a first ever Cabin Air Quality bill for America. This would include: mandatory chemical sensors placed on all current bleed air aircraft, a return to the safer original 5,000 flight miles engine wet seal replacement window from 1978 and a requirement for all future aircraft designs to be the previous safer non-bleed air design which is currently in use with today's new Boeing 787.
We can be the change in aviation’s future. Yet, we can not do it without your help. Our future children deserve airline travel that is both safe and healthy and will not make them sick while on-board. Now is the time for action. Please join us today and contact your local senator or congressman with a demand for action. This Cabin Air Quality bill is the right thing to do for America today.
I am available to take questions and will respond to them on this post for any cabin crew or pilots that have encountered a fume event that are in need of more information.
If you would like to learn more about Aerotoxic Syndrome and Fume Events, I have enclosed a link to my book, "Fume Event - Aviation’s Biggest Lie” at the end of this article. It is a documentary of my own personal story which also includes the history, research and suggested treatments for this condition.
Porter Lafayette
FUME EVENT "Aviation's Biggest Lie" by Porter Lafayette (Paperback) - Lulu