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British airlines is accused of exposing cabin crew to breathing in fumes mixed with engine oil and other toxic chemicals like TCP, an organophosphate known to be dangerous to human health in high enough quantities. But the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says incidents of smoke or fumes on planes are rare and there is no evidence of long-term health effects.
Safety reports submitted to the CAA show that between April 2014 and May 2015 there were at least 251 separate incidents of fumes or smoke inside a large passenger jet operated by a British airline.
Pilot Richard Westgate died in December 2012, aged 43, after complaining of long-term health problems. The coroner said the body "disclosed symptoms consistent with exposure to organophosphate compounds in aircraft cabin air". A similar case is 34-year-old Matthew Bass who died in 2014.
Time to pack a gas mask when flying?
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday June 08 2015, @09:50PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Anne Nonymous on Monday June 08 2015, @10:04PM
I'd like to take the train. Unfortunately my country's passenger rail system is complete shit.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday June 08 2015, @10:06PM
Are you what they call a USian?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Tuesday June 09 2015, @02:56AM
Are you what they call a USian?
America has a rail system. In fact it has long distance rail, but certainly the Boston-Washington corridor doesn't have a terrible system (it's not great, but not terrible. Similar to a branch line in a modern country)
Some countries, like Paraguay, have hardly any rail - 20 miles in that case, 2 miles in Laos, 40 miles in Nepal.
The U.S. has more rail than Russia and China put together.
(Score: 1) by KGIII on Tuesday June 09 2015, @03:51AM
I believe that much of that rail is owned by commercial interests and, unfortunately, the right of way is given to freight and not to passengers. It is like saying that you can take the road behind my house (and this is real) to Canada. You can. You certainly can. However you are not going to take it in a reasonable manner, it is not an easy route even in the winter when you are on a snowmobile. (And there is no border station for many many miles, so if you are on my lawn do not tell me what you intend to do if it involves going to Canada.)
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday June 08 2015, @10:26PM
6000 mile train journeys tend to be tedious.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 08 2015, @11:16PM
The longest rail journey I've taken was Montreal to Calgary, and it was great.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Tuesday June 09 2015, @02:31AM
My schedule for the next month is
Manchester->London->Manchester->Exeter->Plymouth->Exeter->Manchester->London->Manchester->Singapore->Manchester->Jerusalem->Gaza->Manchester->Singapore
There might be a side-trip to Geneva fit in there, or possibly even LA (though I think I've palmed that off) but that's still 26,299 miles. Almost all of that (aside from Exeter-Plymouth on train, Plymouth to Exeter in car, Jerusalem to Gaza in taxi/golfcart/car) will be by air. Even with a hypothetical high speed rail at say 200mph, I don't have time to spend 131 hours in the next 744 travelling.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2015, @03:18AM
That would not really be practical by train, no. And I expect the Manchester to Singapore bit might get a wee bit damp.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday June 08 2015, @11:29PM
I actually had an experience of a seriously toxic smell in the aircraft. It was kind of a bad feeling to know it's toxic and you can't get away and you have to breathe the shit. So packing a small gas mask with carbon filters could perhaps solve the issue as a quick fix?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Fluffeh on Tuesday June 09 2015, @01:08AM
I use a gas mask with a proper filtering system quite a bit when woodworking (you wouldn't believe what old paints and finishes can put into the air when sanding back reclaimed wood) let along how much dust can get up your nose from clean wood. These masks don't look friendly, and I can certainly say that if I was on a plane and someone was wearing one of these I think I would get a bit freaked out... I would like to see someone carrying this actually GET past airport security.
"What do you need that for...?"
"There are reports of fumes on planes...."
"Lies terrorist!! What are you PLANNING!!!"
etc etc.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday June 09 2015, @01:48AM
Woodworking and paint sanding is likely to cause quite large particles. The fumes in planes like TCP is likely very fine molecules. So different filtering type is needed.
But your point about security is one to consider. It should however be possible to pass by using a less scary and small gas mask? (perhaps outside of states of paranoia)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 09 2015, @02:20AM
Would changing the protocol to UDP-over-IPv6 solve the issue? (sure, the plane will remain as unreliable as before, but the datagram size can be increased [wikipedia.org])
(don't shoot!! Lame attempt but only joking)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday June 09 2015, @06:43PM
I use a gas mask with a proper filtering system quite a bit when woodworking
They're called "respirators," for the record.
And while a particulate filter will probably do just fine for home woodworking if you want to filter out something like TCP you need to get cartridges specific to those compounds. So, you need to know what you will be exposed to ahead of time unless you want to carry around a bunch of different cartridges.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 09 2015, @02:34AM
I'd feel better if they address the damn'd actual problem properly. Walking on this path, what's next? Provide a small pair of wings so that the passangers can fly for themselves if the plane develop problems in flight?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday June 09 2015, @08:18AM
I know, but i also know that changing the contents of your hand luggage takes minutes. Changing airlines takes decades. In the meantime your health is on the line.
Regarding quick and dirty. Well the problem is there ain't time or something else that causes it to be a Q&D solution. Otherwise there would been a proper solution from the start. Same applies to temporary solutions.