DO AIRLINES SPREAD SARS?

Conservative Truth ^ | April 21, 2003 | Tom Barrett

[webber]

DO AIRLINES SPREAD SARS?

CONSERVATIVE TRUTH

By Tom Barrett

Why do so many people become ill with a variety of minor and not-so-minor maladies soon after flying on commercial airlines? And could there be a connection between this syndrome and the worldwide SARS epidemic?

I recently spoke with a good friend who had just returned from a trip to Utah. I hardly recognized his voice. At some point on his trip he had picked up a sickness that produced heavy coughing and an extremely sore throat. He was flat on his back for two days as a result. He said something very interesting: "I never get sick except after I fly."

Bells started going off in my head. I had heard similar comments from many people over the years.

I myself often come down with a cold or flu symptoms after flying on commercial airliners. I have long been aware of the research into the connection between flying and contagious diseases.

But what caused me to become very interested in this subject at this time was the worldwide concern with SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome).

Worldwide there have been 3,288 reported cases of SARS resulting in 170 deaths. It is likely that there have been far more cases, as the disease is so new that many physicians and health-care workers have not been trained to recognize it. In addition, there have been documented cases of Chinese hospitals lying about the number of SARS cases, hiding SARS patients from inspection teams, and even filing false death certificates to cover up the number of SARS deaths.

What does this have to do with the airlines? For many years there has been concern over the quality of air in airplane cabins. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) is just one of many health organizations that has expressed concern over diseases acquired while flying. An article in World Airline News (linked below) states, "The problem may be aggravated by the growing use of recirculated air, a fuel-saving measure that may increase the potential for disease transmission in the cabin."

You read it right. Saving fuel is more important than your health. I did a survey of four of the largest airlines in preparation for writing this article.

I was shocked at the cavalier attitude the airline representatives displayed. One said, "Don't you realize that outside air temperature can be as low as minus 70 degrees on high-altitude flights? It would require extra fuel to heat the air so that it could be used in the cabin."

Here is what my informal survey revealed. The people who answered the phones at United and Northwest told me that 100% of their air is recycled.

American told me they use 50% fresh and 50% recycled. No one (not even supervisory personnel) at Delta could answer my question after almost a half hour on the phone. I finally looked at their website while I was waiting and informed the supervisor that her airline uses 50% recycled air.

Delta's website states, "The air you breathe in the airplane cabin is 50% fresh from outside the aircraft and 50% recycled. This re-circulated air is drawn through High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters prior to returning to the cabin. This system results in a total air exchange within 2-3 minutes (20-30 times each hour). This is more frequent than in homes and office buildings." Right, Delta, but in homes and office building people aren't packed shoulder-to-shoulder like sardines. And if your filters are so efficient, why do so many people get sick after flying?

I spoke to about a dozen people altogether at the four airlines. Most tried to convince me that it is technologically impossible to use fresh air at high altitudes. But one lady from American shared some interesting information with me. She told me that the Boeing 727's American used to use provided only fresh air to passengers, but that they have retired all their 727's. Here's a question for the airlines. If the 727 could use fresh air at high altitudes, why can't you engineer current aircraft to do the same? The answer is that obviously they can, but that they don't want to spend the money.

I had an interesting exchange with a woman from United. When I mentioned that the airlines will likely be on the wrong end of numerous lawsuits from people who get SARS, she said, "You know what? We'll probably be out of business before they can sue us." When I told her I'd like to quote her, for some reason she refused to give her name.

Anyone who flies and is even mildly observant will have noted that airlines are far more concerned about the safety of their personnel than that of their passengers (protestations that "Passenger Safety is Priority Number One" notwithstanding). All you need to do is look at the simple lap belts provided to passengers, and compare them to the double- cross-chest-plus-lap-belt restraints provided for pilots and flight attendants. So it should come as no surprise that the pilots on your flight are not breathing the same air that you breathe. The linked article below on reveals that pilots are provided a separate air supply with a greater flow rate. If there is no problem, as the airlines claim, why don't the pilots breathe the same air as the people who pay their salaries?

Lest you think me an alarmist, consider these facts. Flight attendants from more than twenty U.S.-based airlines, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), are strongly pressing members of Congress for better standards governing cabin air quality. And the National Academy of Sciences is conducting a cabin air quality study, as required by congressional legislation.

In the second article listed below under "Links", there is a subtitle, "Who Is at Risk For SARS?" The answer, in part, is, "People who have had direct close contact with an infected person, such as those sharing a household with a SARS patient." There is danger of infection from just being in the same household? How about sharing a crowded airline cabin and breathing the same air as the SARS patient?

I suggest that everyone who must fly get one of those little masks that the Japanese wear. When people on your flight ask why you are wearing it, tell them, "I don't want to breathe the recycled air the airline uses in the cabin."

Better yet, hang a sign around your neck for those passengers who are too polite to ask you why you're wearing a mask:
"Danger! This airline recycles air instead of providing safe, fresh air for us to breathe."

We need to let the airlines know that we won't fly on any flight that recycles air that has been breathed, coughed in and sneezed in by hundreds of other passengers. They need to get their economic priorities straight. Yes, it will cost more fuel to provide fresh air to their passengers. It would be worth that cost to prevent the spread of colds, flu, pneumonia and other common respiratory diseases. The advent of SARS, with its risk of death, makes the consideration of the cost of fuel even less important.

NOTE: I seldom do this, but I feel this article is so important that it should be forwarded. In addition to forwarding it to your friends and colleagues, let me suggest that you contact the airlines listed below (and others on which you fly) and express your concerns about airline cabin air quality.

LINKS:
Mysterious Illness: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
Information About Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
Poor Cabin Air Quality Seen as Threat to Health and Safety
Flight Attendants Urge Lawmakers To Focus On Cabin Air Quality

AIRLINES:

American Airlines
800-433-7300

United Airlines
800-241-6522

Northwest Airlines
800-225-2525

Delta Airlines
800-221-1212

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[dirtboy]

We need to let the airlines know that we won't fly on any flight that recycles air that has been breathed, coughed in and sneezed in by hundreds of other passengers.

That is a patently absurd demand. For this to happen, you'd have to have every passenger dressed in a hazmat suit.

[Lazamataz]

DO AIRLINES SPREAD SARS?

Well, they sure spread that killer virus in the movie "12 Monkeys".

[Renegade]

I usually pick up something when I fly from the Phila. area to Tampa . You are enclosed in the confined space and any person who sneezes sends droplets all over the interior. You can smell the gas someone passes a good ten rows in front of you .
Not to mention the headrest and pillows that ARE NOT disinfected before each flight ..Take lots of Vitamin C before you fly to boost the immune system .

[joesnuffy]

Disease with human hosts will always spread along trade routes
Follow other disease patterns and find them strung out along major highways and truck stops
Your best bet is to be in an isolated rural area far off the beaten track and never travel to the big city or shop in big crowds..imo

[dirtboy]

Yeah, I think the bugs you get on airlines are a function of being in close proximity to so many people AND the pressure changes that help to drive microbes into your eustacian tubes.

[pops88]

"The problem may be aggravated by the growing use of recirculated air, a fuel-saving measure that may increase the potential for disease transmission in the cabin."

As a pilot and a nurse, this is one of the things that for years has bothered me about flying commercially. Some planes can use 100% outside air, but many have no option but to use recirculated air. They weren't designed or built for a choice.

[tracer]

There was none of this SARS stuff when the airlines served peanuts. Perhaps the CDC will p1$$ away millions more of our tax $$ to check this out..... 8~)

[HighRoadToChina]

BUMP!!!

[RS]

"That is a patently absurd demand. For this to happen, you'd have to have every passenger dressed in a hazmat suit. "

Hey, what about everyone that rides buses, trains, subways, elevators or attends movies, or restaurants or shops?

Now that we got rid of the smokers, why not get rid of the breathers ?

How about if you don't feel safe riding a commercial jet... don't

Besides, the airlines need the money and room to put in the anti-missile systems.

[TommyDale]

Any frequent flyer would repeat the line, "I never get sick except after I fly."

I can't recall the statistics, but the air is turned over so many times on a flight that every passenger is exposed to every illness on board.

[aristeides]

Are passengers allowed to bring their own oxygen on board planes, and to breathe it?

[aristeides]

If the air has to be recirculated, is there a way to filter it?

[Billthedrill]

It isn't the recycling of the air that's the problem as long as it's filtered - it's the stuff you get while the air is running through the cabin between outlet and intake. You can't filter it between Typhoid Mary in row 12 and your own row 28. In fact, rapid recirculation of the air actually helps spread aerosol droplets more rapidly than still air.

With any disease there's an incubation period, and if this is complicated by rapid travel a sick person can spread the disease before he or she even knows he or she is sick. That's why there are quarantines - these are a time-honored (the first ones were in the 14th century) method of confining travelers' illnesses to themselves. It's wildly inconvenient these days, but then so is death.

[CathyRyan]

Last I heard the airline supplies 02 if there is a doctor's order.

[webber]

"That is a patently absurd demand. For this to happen, you'd have to have every passenger dressed in a hazmat suit."

No it's not. Did you read the entire article? YOU DON'T HAVE TO RECYCLE THE AIR.

Bring in FRESH OUTSIDE AIRinto the cabin. Then you will NOT be recycling pathogens which cannot be completely filtered out of the air.

[dirtboy]

Bring in FRESH OUTSIDE AIRinto the cabin. Then you will NOT be recycling pathogens which cannot be completely filtered out of the air.

And guess what? That won't make a difference - because you're still surrounded by hundreds of people in close quarters, with plenty of opportunities for microbes to be spread even by fresh air as it moves among the passengers. The recycled air ain't the problem.

[safisoft]

that pilots are provided a separate air supply with a greater flow rate. If there is no problem, as the airlines claim, why don't the pilots breathe the same air as the people who pay their salaries

This is pure malarky. I am a pilot for a major U.S. airline and this is more of the same old urban legend nonsense. The fact is that EVERYONE in the aircraft breaths the SAME air. There are 2 airconditioning packs in most 2 engine airliners. The left pack usually provides conditioned air (as in cold/hot for temperature) to the front of the aircraft (front HALF). That does NOT mean that it is different air. It usually goes through a mixing box - and regardless, the pressure between the FRONT and the BACK of the aircraft is the same - so ALL the air mixes in the cabin. Even the aft cargo is usually included in the circulated air. Regardless, for what passengers are paying for tickets these days, it could be argued that our salaries are 1). Not being paid; and 2). are more a case of being paid by cargo that we share air with in the cargo compartments.

Other silly comments continue to be made regarding "fresh" air and "recirculated air". This all stems from the fact that most people are woefully ignorant of plain old simple science. At 39,000 feet, the "air" has the same oxygen content as that at sea level. Airliners do NOT provide oxygen for breathing. They NEVER have in pressurized aircraft. What has changed in recent years is NOT the reconditioning of air - but the fact that there is less LEAKING out. There is no "bringing in of fresh air" per se, nor has their EVER been in pressurized hulls - only the replacement of what has leaked out. What do these ninnies want aircraft manufacturers to do - make more LEAKS in order to provide more "fresh air"? So much silliness, so little time to debunk.

[Cicero]

I don't know if they have done studies, and if they have probably the airlines won't release them. It seems obvious that fresh air is better than recirculated. But it's still not a complete solution. Being in such an enclosed space with numerous strangers from different parts of the country or the world is bound to expose you to risk of infection regardless.

The same is true of trains, elevators, urban offices, schools, and so on.

[webber]

"If the air has to be recirculated, is there a way to filter it?"

Millipore filters needed to filter out bacteria and viruses will not allow enough air to pass through quickly enough to be of any service since it would take too long for the air in the entire cabin to be filtered. In the mean time, you would be breathing unfiltered air combined with little amount of filtered air which completely defeats the purpose. You could ,however, feign oxgen deprivation and ask that your oxygen mask be dropped and then you can breathe pure air, just don't breathe too fast, the O2 content is higher than the atmosphere.