2023-10-25 08:45:39
Following several testimonies from flight crew, the health agency admits, in a report published this Wednesday, the existence of several sources of pollutants in the cabins. She calls for “further research”.
Headaches, blurred vision, nausea, loss of balance… For several years, flight crews have reported adverse effects on their health, probably due to unusual fumes or smoke in aircraft cabins or cockpits. These very varied symptoms have been mentioned in several studies and grouped by certain authors under the term “aerotoxic syndrome”.
In a report published this Wednesday, October 25, the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) recognizes that flight crew “are subject to multiple nuisances and particular working conditions in flight “. However, she calls for continued research, specifying that “epidemiological studies are still necessary to clarify the effects on health of these multiple exposures and working conditions of these employees”.
Increase in the number of cancers
Pilots, flight attendants, stewards: in France, more than 30,000 people work in aircraft cabins. During flight hours, flight crew are exposed “to ionizing radiation from cosmic and solar rays, which increase in particular with altitude”.
“The incidence of certain cancers, such as skin cancers (squamous cell and melanoma) and leukemia, is increasing in these workers, which might be caused by this radiation,” underlines ANSES.
With regard to prostate and breast cancers among aircrew, it is more difficult to conclude on an increase in risk in this population, “most often due to a lack of available studies” indicates the agency.
Added to this is night work or staggered hours, “known to cause health effects”.
The “smoke event”
In aircraft cabins, studies have shown that multiple sources of pollutants are present. According to ANSES, they can be linked “to the materials used, the operation of the aircraft and in particular the ventilation system, the operations carried out on the ground and in flight”.
“In the vast majority of aircraft, the air supplying the cabin is partly taken from the engines,” explains the report.
Compounds from engine oil or its thermal degradation are commonly suspected of polluting cabin air.
At the end of the 1990s, several complaints from crew members, around the world and more particularly in Canada, were recorded. The flight crew reported various symptoms linked to these fumes. This phenomenon has since been the subject of studies and has been referred to in the literature by the expression “fume event “.
The Anses expert opinion states, however, that the studies carried out “do not make it possible to objectify these symptoms or identify their causes”.
“Additional research” is “essential”
In its expert opinion, ANSES states that it cannot conclude “neither on the origin of the pollutants detected in the cabin air nor on their concentration levels, due to insufficient quality data”.
Hence the need to set up “additional research”, explains ANSES. In order to identify the risks to the health of these workers, it is “essential” to evaluate “the quality of the air in the cabins, identify the circumstances that might lead to particular pollution of this air and objectify the symptoms reported by these personnel” states the report.
The agency nevertheless emphasizes that research is currently being carried out in France and at European level on the potential contamination of cabins by air taken from the engines.
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