Steven1 wrote:
... The largest concern I think I have is riding in the airplanes because the air exchange systems are pretty useless on planes and are well known for spreading disease. Ya won't get sick from the air of wherever you go to or be....but you're exposure takes quantum leaps for each flight you take. ...
Steven,
Did you even actually read the article you just cited? Basically it said that the perception that the air exchange systems on planes are pretty useless and are well known for spreading disease is all just a bunch of hoohah. The article looked at the perceptions vs. the facts about aircraft cabin air quality in 4 specific areas including the spreading of disease.
First the perception:
Quote:
Perception
A persistent perception is that there is a spread of disease on modern airplanes due to the recirculation system.
A documented study used to support this perception was the occurrence of an outbreak of infectious disease among passengers of an airplane, following a three-hour delay without the ventilation system operating. In 1979, because of an engine malfunction, an airliner with 54 persons on board was delayed on the ground for three hours, during which time the airplane ventilation system was turned off. The airplane had a 100 percent outside air system, with no recirculation. Within three days of the incident, 72 percent of the passengers became ill with influenza. One passenger (the index case) was ill while the airplane was delayed.
(bolding added by me for emphasis)
Next the facts:
So this urban legend dates back to one unusual incident where the plane's environmental control system (ECS)
was not even operating. Given today's climate of heightened concern about the transmission of swine flu, even in the unlikely event that a similar equipment breakdown will occur, it would still seem even less likely that any airline would allow its passengers to be confined in such an environment on the runway for anywhere near that long. Also, if an engine malfunction caused the ECS to shut down while you were already up in the air, you'd probably have much larger concerns than simply catching the flu (like staying up in the air without engine power).
Quote:
Three hours on an airplane with the ventilation system shut off does not reflect proper use of the cabin environmental control systems. Boeing believes that had the ventilation system been operating during the delay, the possibility of other passengers becoming ill would have been minimal. ...
To remove particulates and biological particles from the recirculated air, filter assemblies installed on all current Boeing airplanes contain a high efficiency particulate air type filter (HEPA-type) that has a minimum efficiency of 94-99.97% D.O.P. as measured by MIL-STD-282. A HEPA-type filter is rated using 0.3 micron size particles. To get an idea of this size, the width of a human hair averages 70 microns in diameter. A filter’s efficiency increases over time as particulates become trapped by the filter. ...
The efficiency of the filter to remove .003 micron particles from the air is in excess of 99.9+ percent. Most bacteria (99percent) are larger than 1 micron. Viruses are approximately.003 to .05 microns in size. Test results of a DOT study conducted on 92 randomly selected flights showed that bacteria and fungi levels measured in the airplane cabin are similar to or lower than those found in the common home. These very low microbial contaminant levels are due to the large quantity of outside airflow and high filtration capability of the recirculation system.The recirculation filters used on current Boeing airplanes are similar to filters used in critical wards of hospitals, such as organ transplant and burn units, and to those used inindustrial “clean†rooms. By comparison, filtration systems in typical buildings are not capable of removing microbial contaminants, including bacteria and viruses, from the recirculated air.
(again, bold added for me for emphasis)
Finally the article makes these overall conclusions:
Quote:
Conclusion
The symptoms experienced by flight attendants, such as fatigue, headaches, tiredness, nausea and illness—often attributed to cabin air quality—are more likely due to an interaction of factors that include cabin altitude, flight duration, jet lag, turbulence, noise, work levels, dehydration, an individual’s health and stress. ...
As many recent air quality studies have shown, the cabin is a healthful environment, meeting all applicable safety and health regulations and standards.
This whole issue of aircraft air quality came up after a recent intemperate off-the-cuff comment by VP Joe Biden (what else is new?) which elicited howls of complaints by the airline industry, corrective information by medical experts and others and eventually backpeddling by the VP and others in the Obama administration. To be honest, until I had read about all this incident, the responses to it and began researching the facts, I also shared the same fears and misperceptions as you, the VP and others. Anyway, rather than offer more quotes, I'll close with a link to an article on the "Joe Biden incident" and the responses to it.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=7470281&page=1
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