^^^What he said!

 

But these weren't pilots so the group mentality doesn't come into play. Yes because people are talking about what the dirty sock smell actually is now I am more cognizant of what I am breathing into my body. I don't think it's a bad thing I think of what fume I am smelling everytime I smell something.

 

This ^^^^^

The guy who suffered serious issues literally walked through a visible cloud of vaporized oil. That is completely different than smelling a smell when the bleeds change. It's important for us to recognize that difference because if we don't, of course people are going to be freaked out.

I think most pilots are fairly calm about the issue. They are reporting things as requested. But I'm hearing some flight attendants are losing it when they get a whiff of anything. Food. Nail polish. Whatever. It's taking on a life of its own, and group psychology is really hard to fix.

 

The fact alone that the BA guy Richard Westgate's autoposy showed organophosphate poisoning as a cause of death should sound alarm bells with everyone as to the level of danger this stuff poses. Here is an interesting snippet from this article. https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...soning-402138/

"Abou-Donia and his colleagues are also investigating the January 2014 death of an unnamed 34-year-old BA airline steward, whose tissue samples indicate degradation that appears identical to the pilot’s case, and is “consistent with organophosphate-induced neurotoxicity”. Both Westgate and the steward died in their beds.

Abou-Donia says Westgate’s case is “one of the worst cases of organo-phosphate [OP] poisoning I have come across”.

“In all my specialised tests for neuro-specific auto-antibodies he was the worst by far,” he says. “The air transport industry constantly overlooks vital components of OP poisoning: the combined effects of multiple compound exposure – repeated low-dosage exposure is just as dangerous as a single large dose (often more so) – and the genetic predisposition to toxicity of the individual’s genes.”

Abou-Donia's latter point is particularly important, as some of the fume events investigated saw one pilot react badly to the neurotoxins while the other was apparently unaffected, which led to confusion."

 

All three links are dead.

I fought this battle when I worked for the government. I can reliably diagnose what I believe is TCP based toxins in the air. There is one plane type I flew that I could reproduce it every time. One symptom I experienced was throbbing nerve pains throughout my body after an exposure. It took 3 yrs for that to reduce. All other neurological symptoms were also consistent with my experience.

During my crusade I was very disappointed to find out that the EPA cannot help us in any way. While they can regulate air quality standards inside of a building, they have no jurisdiction within an airplane. Only the FAA has jurisdiction over cabin air quality standards. Unfortunately, The FAA has made no effort to parallel the air quality standards of a building.

You can find military documents and documents written by engineers dating back to the 50s citing the toxic danger of bleed air contamination.. While these guys may install HEPA filters, they are not installing our air quality monitoring systems as recommended by engineers. Also, if they did install air quality monitoring systems, I'm sure that they would set the thresholds high so that they would never be triggered into a warning event mode. No exposure to organophosphates is safe but the industry will have you believe that there are acceptable levels. This is the same problem that you find in the nuclear industry. Incidentally we should also be flying around with dosimeters since we get more radiation exposure than a nuclear worker.

There are those of us that may have developed in multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) and now many chemical-based orderizers such as air spray's cause discomfort and similar symptoms to aero toxic syndrome is exposed for continuous amounts of time. I'm personally very sensitive to places that have been smoked in even a single time.

Lastly, I have to be critical of all those pilots that laughed, were apologists for, and belittled any of those who brought this issue up. I'm glad to see that it's finally being addressed.

 

Try those links.

 

Well think about this. The FAA is one of the few government agencies that is regulated directly by Congress. And who controls Congress?? Big corporations, including big airlines. Has anyone reached out to Erin Brokovich? Don't laugh!! She is good at fanning the flames in these type cases.

 

I'm gonna backtrack on my above statement after reviewing the QRH. I think an argument could be made that the Smoke/Fumes Removal (S-18 for those with access) is what should be applied if TCP fumes are suspected. IrishNJ is correct.

The question you have to ask yourself is if the F3 calls up front and reports a dirty sock smell and no one else smells it do you apply that procedure?

 

And to continue this conversation with myself, According to the summer QDL the first stop in the QRH would be Smoke/Fumes/Avionics Smoke on S-7 which would eventually lead you to S-18.

So with all that cleared up I don't think you can make the argument that jetblue isn't doing anything. It's right there in the QDL discussing what procedure to apply in a fumes event.

 

I commend them on their response, personally. I only wished that the industry had done even the bare minimum since the 50's. except for the 787, we still have bleed air systems for air. Nothing stopped all the airlines, including JB from requiring manufacturers to develop safe air systems. The strategy of waiting for tragedy to change things is an intellectual choice.