Aerotoxic Syndrome

Introduction

For the operation of any aircraft, there are a huge number of materials that are used and contain significant toxicities, with some hazardous ingredients. These materials need care, as some of the unwanted exposure either short term or long term may be induced some symptoms of toxicity’s toxicity indicates the possibility of the discrete occupational health condition due to the leakage of engine oil, jet fuel and seal failure etc. and additional the lower oxygen level in the cabin of planes flying at altitude, known as Aerotoxic syndrome (Mich

Nature of Aerotoxic Syndrome

The Aerotoxic Syndrome causing an effect like memory loss, blurred vision, nausea, as in flights the cabin crew and the passengers can be directly showing to touch chemicals on aircraft can produce symptoms of toxicity for a long term. The symptoms related to aerotoxic include neuropsychological effects and chemical intoxication (Hocking, 2005).

Aerotoxic Syndromes presents noteworthy issues and can be directly or indirectly effects on the stakeholders of the airline industries, the following points describe the problematic effects on the stakeholders-

Health of Staff

The stakeholders want to achieve the desired goal of the business with the support of healthy staff. When the staff member is not healthy and effective, it’s not an easy for the stakeholders to run their business smoothly and profitably (Hocking, 2005). The airline stakeholders suffer from an Aerotoxic syndrome due to its ill effects that create an unhealthy environment for a business.

Image of the Business

The important effect on the stakeholders, due to the aerotoxic syndromes is that it affects the airline image in the market. When the pilots and cabin crew members are incapable of performing his duty during emergencies due to the Aerotoxic syndrome it may affect the image of the airline business and to the stakeholders (Ramsden, 2014).

Job Security

The staff members of the airlines are always worried regarding the job security, as at present Aerotoxic syndrome is a hidden problem and there are few cases that are going on in the court, little amount of compensation has been given to the airline workers affected by the syndromes (Parsons, 2011). The situation has become critical for the stakeholders regarding the job security of the workers.

Controversies Related to Aerotoxic Syndrome

There is controversy over the existence of Aerotoxic Syndrome, this term and illness has been not recognized medically. The main controversy is related to the bleed-air, as all the commercial planes except Boeing uses the bleed- air system for the air breathed by the crew members and the passengers. During flight and the crew is polluted by the low-level concentration of poisonous chemicals that are coming from the engines, and this air have been blamed for causing Aerotoxic syndromes in number of pilots and the cabin crew members (Ramsden, 2014). However, the airline industry claims that there is no evidence of any connection

Solution

The effective and potential solutions are needed for the controversies. Every airline company has to establish and understand a relation between exposure and chronic ill health. It is impossible in the absence of routine air quality monitoring on commercial planes and to determine about the chemicals enter the cabin and in what quantity. Hence, the better solution is to understand and have knowledge about the exposure occurrence and at which level of this exposure can be improved (Hocking, 2005).

It is better to identify the hazards or the side effects of the Aerotoxic syndrome. After the identification of the hazards, it becomes easy to measure the risk control process. It is important to estimate the risk level of the syndrome and their acceptability due to containing air toxic chemicals, seal leakage problem and so on. Risk evaluation is used as a priority action by the airline industry to control the problem of the Aerotoxic syndrome and to minimize health risks (Ramsden, 2014).

The airline should take proper actions when their staff members request and give indications of Aerotoxic syndrome and they may be not able to fly. The actions taken by the airlines will be beneficial for their business growth as well as it may increase the faith and loyalty of the staff over airline industry.

Suggestions

Ensure the staff members that the management takes care and concern about their health issues.

The company tries to improve the quality of engines with effective new technologies.

A less toxic oil formulation would be applied for the improvement of air chemicals. 

References

Hocking, M. (2005). Air quality in airplane cabins and similar enclosed spaces. Berlin: Springer.

Michaelis, S. (2016). O27-3 Aerotoxic syndrome – fact or fallacy? Occupational And Environmental Medicine, 73( 1), 51.-53.

Parsons, P. (2011). Economic consequences of ignorance about aerotoxic syndrome. Journal Of Biological Physics And Chemistry, 11(4), 208

Ramsden, J. (2014). Is there such a thing as aerotoxic syndrome?. JBPC, 14(4), 113-116.