DeFazio calls for better air quality on airliners.

Byline: Bill Bishop The Register-Guard

Ever wonder if it's the air inside an airplane that gives you that post-flight headache or nasty cold?

Don't ask the Federal Aviation Administration because it isn't paying much attention to air quality, according to a General Accounting Office survey done at the request of Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore.

"It would be hard to find an airline passenger who has never come down with a cold or a sore throat and runny nose after flying," DeFazio said Monday. "Yet the FAA has largely ignored the effects of cabin air quality on the flying public."

DeFazio, the ranking Democrat on the House Aviation Subcommittee, said he will push the FAA to begin monitoring airplane air quality and then to develop environmental and health standards to address problems.

The GAO study, released Monday, found that 85 percent of commercial airliners recirculate cabin air through high-efficiency particulate air filters which remove more than 99 percent of viruses and other small particles when working properly. However, the report noted that the FAA has no regulations covering filter maintenance.

The filters are not required and most aircraft that carry fewer than 100 passengers do not have them, the report noted.

The Association of Flight Attendants, which represents 50,000 employees of 26 airlines, says airplane air contains as little as 74 percent of the oxygen found in air at sea level. According to the association's Web site, no study has been done to determine whether that minimum required oxygen level poses a health threat to passengers or crew members with certain medical or physical conditions.

The association also says ventilation systems do not take in enough outside air to dilute and flush contaminants from the air inside the cabin. In certain aircraft and under some conditions, crews have reported that the cabin air supply may have been contaminated by equipment malfunction.

Medical literature covering the issue also is scarce, said Dr. Kraig Jacobson, a respiratory specialist with 28 years of experience at Allergy and Asthma Associates in Eugene.

"This is far from scientific. I've got more patients than I can count that complain about airplanes," Jacobson said. "As far as chronic illness, it's a lot more common in flight attendants who fly all the time."

While high-efficiency particulate air filters are the best mechanical system to maintain airplane air quality, Jacobson said, they require regular servicing.

DeFazio, who made 34 round trips between Oregon and Washington, D.C., last year, is urging consumers to complain to the airlines and to his office to encourage the government and the industry to improve air quality.

"Safety and security come first. But the health of the traveling public and the flight crews needs more attention," he said. "There is tremendous industry resistance to this. A lot more needs to be done."