Grow Youthful: How to Slow Your Aging and Enjoy Extraordinary Health
Grow Youthful: How to Slow Your Aging and Enjoy Extraordinary Health

Time zones? Confined spaces? Lack of movement?

The real reason you can feel jet lag after flying

After a long-haul flight

Bleed air and fume events

What is aerotoxic syndrome?

Symptoms of aerotoxic syndrome

How to protect yourself from aerotoxic syndrome

References

After a long-haul flight

Most people feel tired and disrupted after a long flight. The seats are cramped and uncomfortable. Your normal sleep schedule is broken, especially if you fly across time zones. On most flights, there are a couple of coughing, wheezing, inconsiderate passengers who should never have been allowed on board to share their germs or viruses. The atmosphere on commercial jets is at a lower pressure, lower oxygen level, and lower than normal room temperature than on the ground. It is also a lot drier. At high altitude, around 10km above sea level, the level of radiation is significantly raised.

All of these factors affect how we feel after a long flight. Insomnia, tiredness and lack of energy, susceptibility to infections, brain fog, and a general feeling of malaise often last for a couple of days and in the worst cases for a couple of weeks.

However the real reason for this kind of jet lag, the purple elephant in the room, is not something we ever hear about. The dirty secret of the aviation industry is that nearly all the air inside jet aircraft comes directly from the compressor section in the jet engines.

Bleed air and fume events

Aircraft engines operate at high temperatures, with low pressures outside and high pressures inside. Normal petroleum-based oils and hydraulic fluids are insufficient, and instead aircraft use a mix of synthetic hydrocarbons. Some of the components of fluids used in aircraft are extremely toxic, and can have severe long-term consequences for human health if any contact is made. (3)

At altitude, the air entering the engine is perfectly clean. Compressed air is taken from the compressor stage of the jet engine and used to provide fresh air inside the aircraft. This air from the jet engines is known as bleed air. Bleed air is mixed with the existing filtered air inside the cabin. On nearly all modern jetliners, the airflow is approximately 50% "outside air" and 50% "filtered air." (2)

Most jetliners have a basic filter called a water "separator coalesce" or SOCK. The SOCK is supposed to retain the dirt and oil from the engine bleed air. According to Wikipedia (2) it "keeps the cabin air cleaner" but it certainly does not remove 100% of the contaminants. In addition, modern jetliners use "high efficiency particulate arresting" HEPA filters, which trap more than 99% of the bacteria and clustered viruses in the air. (2)

When everything is working perfectly, the air inside the aircraft should be acceptably (??) clean. However, a minor failure somewhere in the system is probably a common, unacknowledged, unreported, unmeasured event. One source estimates that about a quarter of all flights suffer slight but significant contamination, and that this contamination might be continuous throughout the flight. (4)

On occasions, jet engine carbon seals can leak jet engine oil, jet hydraulic fluids, and other extremely hazardous chemicals into the bleed air, in what is called a "fume event". (2, 3) Fume events can occur because of the failure of a gasket, seal or some other component, poor design, or most commonly, because of inadequate maintenance. Sometimes smoke or a blue haze is actually visible, but more often there are just strong smells. The smells have been described as chemical burning, electrical burning, sweet oily, sweaty socks, wet dog, and vomit. Normally the pilot can shut down the bleed air from the offending engine, but usually only after heavy exposure by the passengers and crew.

One source (4) estimates that a fume event occurs in about 1% of all flights, but British Government investigations indicate that it may be a rarer event (5).

What is Aerotoxic Syndrome?

Aerotoxic Syndrome is any illness caused by exposure to contaminated air in jet aircraft. By far the biggest source of contamination is air in the cabin. In addition, other materials used in the operation of aircraft may contain hazardous ingredients, some with significant toxicities. The symptoms reported by exposed individuals are sufficiently consistent to indicate the possibility of a discrete occupational health condition, known as aerotoxic syndrome. Symptoms usually involve irritation, sensitivity and neurotoxicity, which may be reversible following brief exposures, but features are emerging of a chronic syndrome following moderate to substantial exposures. (4)

Symptoms of aerotoxic syndrome

How to protect yourself from aerotoxic syndrome

As of October 2017, the only passenger jet aircraft that does not use bleed air is the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Instead, cabin air is supplied by electrically-driven compressors taking their air directly from the atmosphere outside the aircraft. I have several friends who have flown on these aircraft, and they all report that they feel fresher and less lagged after reaching their destination.

Aside from choosing airlines using 787s, you will probably be better off flying with the most reputable airlines that are not likely to skimp on maintenance.

If you use any remedies from Grow Youthful, please come back next week (or whenever you have an outcome) and let us know about your experience. Please leave a comment as many people are interested.

See details of remedies recommended by Grow Youthful visitors, and their experience with them.

References

1. Chris Winder, Jean-Christophe Balouet. Aerotoxic sydrome: adverse health effects following exposure to jet oil mist during commercial flights. Towards a safe and Civil Society. Proceedings of the International Congress on Occupational Health Conference, held in Brisbane, Australuia, 4-6 September 2000. ISBN 0-646-401546-196.

2. Wikipedia: Environmental control system (aircraft).

3. Contamination of aircraft cabin air by bleed air - a review of the evidence. Report published by the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). Expert Panel on Aircraft Air Quality reviewing evidence up to September 2009.

4. The website aerotoxic.org is dedicated to exposing and correcting this problem.

5. Position Paper on Cabin Air. Committee on Toxicity, Food Standards Agency, cot.food.gov.uk.