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posted by n1 on Monday June 08 2015, @09:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the he-who-smelt-it dept.

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?


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  • (Score: 2) by Anne Nonymous on Monday June 08 2015, @10:04PM

    by Anne Nonymous (712) on Monday June 08 2015, @10:04PM (#193835)

    I'd like to take the train. Unfortunately my country's passenger rail system is complete shit.

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday June 08 2015, @10:06PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday June 08 2015, @10:06PM (#193837) Journal

    Are you what they call a USian?

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    • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Tuesday June 09 2015, @02:56AM

      by isostatic (365) on Tuesday June 09 2015, @02:56AM (#193915) Journal

      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

        by KGIII (5261) on Tuesday June 09 2015, @03:51AM (#193927) Journal

        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.)

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  • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday June 08 2015, @10:26PM

    by isostatic (365) on Monday June 08 2015, @10:26PM (#193842) Journal

    6000 mile train journeys tend to be tedious.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 08 2015, @11:16PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 08 2015, @11:16PM (#193858)

      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

        by isostatic (365) on Tuesday June 09 2015, @02:31AM (#193900) Journal

        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

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 09 2015, @03:18AM (#193920)

          That would not really be practical by train, no. And I expect the Manchester to Singapore bit might get a wee bit damp.