[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

[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.

[HighRoadToChina]

BUMP!!!

[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?

[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.

[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.

[Chemist_Geek]

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?

Why does the flight crew have "extra" restraints? Uhh, maybe because the flight crew is a leeeetle more involved in KEEPING THE AIRPLANE FROM FALLING OUT OF THE SKY than the passengers are?

And the pilots' "separate air supply with a greater flow rate" is an oxygen system which is required by the Federal Aviation Regulations, due to the tiny problem of hypoxia at altitudes above 12,000 feet MSL.

The above hyperventilatory (apologies for the pun) screed is a waste of electrons. It'd be better for this person to actually learn some meteorology, engineering, and aviation before flying (again, apologies for the pun) off the handle with this THE AIRLINES ARE TRYING TO KILL US bilgewater.

[Gritty]

Do I smell a trial lawyers bonanza brewing here?

[CanadianBacon]

This just looks like another "boy who cried wolf" story trying to create either a fortune for a trial lawyer or another panic about airlines.

I expect the recycled air in planes is at least as good as that at movie theatres, basketball or hockey games, concerts and most public transit vehicles or any other confined space that crowds of people are present.

[palmer]

I myself often come down with a cold or flu symptoms after flying on commercial airliners.

Nasal passage irritation from dry air causes his symptoms.

[_Jim]

DO AIRLINES SPREAD SARS?

Did Cholera cross the Atlantic in ocean-going vessels?

[pttttt]

If it's spread like colds, SARS is probably spread by contact much more than airborne. One of the networks sponsored a study on this for colds. People shake hands or touch contaminated surfaces and then touch their nose or mouth, even when they don't think they do (proven by spreading UV dye). Airborne exposure wasn't a significant factor.

On a crowded airplane, while it doesn't help that you're breathing everyone's recycled flatulence etc., you'd also be more sensitive because you'd be dehydrated and the tissue inside your nose and sinuses would be more apt to pick up bugs. And there's also more touching of contaminated surfaces.

So wash your hands a lot and keep your hands away from your face (putting masks on and taking them off could actually contribute to the spread since there's more contact). And maybe the Japanese have something with the bow greeting instead of shaking hands.

[The_Media_never_lie]

Things are getting rather bad with the spread of SARS and all.

Next time you are in a crowd i.e. a crowded elevator and someone sneezes, be the first to shout loudly: "Take a sick day, pal". Don't for a minute think you are being rude; you are protecting the best interests of society.

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

Do you have a direct link to the article? Your link doesn't go to the article, and it's nowhere on the site. Thanks.