Aerotoxic Syndrome: Unrecognized Occupational Health Hazard to Pilots and Cabin Crew?

Aerotoxic Syndrome, also known as Toxic Cabin Air Syndrome, could be poised to become as the airline industry’s version of the dreaded “Gulf War Syndrome?

By: Ringo Bones

As of March 28, 2019, five of the UK’s largest airlines are facing legal action which claims pilots and cabin crew are regularly exposed to toxic fumes during flight. The Unite Union said legal notice has been served in 51 cases, the majority of which are against British Airways. Easyjet, Thomas Cook, Jet2 and Virgin Atlantic are also subject to the legal action over “aerotoxic syndrome”. The Unite Union, which represents airline staff, claims pilots and crew are exposed to frequent “fume events” when air drawn into the aircraft becomes contaminated by toxic compounds. The Unite Union says the fumes – which originate from the oil used to lubricate the jet engines – contain organophosphates and trichlorophenol and long-term exposure can lead to chronic ill effects and life threatening conditions. Pardon me but two of the chemicals mentioned here reminded me of nerve gas / cholinesterase inhibitor chemical agent precursors suspected of causing the dreaded “Gulf War Syndrome” that affected a large number of troops who served during Operation Desert Storm back in 1991.

Sadly the science behind aerotoxic syndrome is still under dispute by the world’s leading occupational health authorities. Aerotoxic Syndrome is a phrase coined by Chris Winder and Jean-Christophe Balouet in 2000 to describe their claims of short-term and long-term ill-health effects caused by breathing airline cabin air which was alleged to have been contaminated to toxic levels that exceed established parts per million safe levels with atomized engine oils or other chemicals. An assessment by the UK’s House of Lords Science and Technology Committee found that claims of health effects were unsubstantiated. An update in 2008 found no significant new evidence. As of 2013, aerotoxic syndrome is still not recognized in medicine. Could aerotoxic syndrome / toxic cabin air syndrome just become the global airline industry’s Gulf War Syndrome? 

Of The Gulf of Aden Anti-Piracy Campaign and Gulf War Syndrome

Even though the rumored hazardous toxic waste dumps in the Gulf of Aden are yet to receive press attention, are the anti-piracy campaigns in these waters a veritable occupational hazard?


By: Ringo Bones


Ever since the extensive press coverage of the dramatic rescue of the Maersk Alabama’s skipper Capt. Richard Phillips from the clutches of bloodthirsty Somali pirates by a US Navy SEAL team highlighted the growing danger of piracy on commercial maritime traffic on the Gulf of Aden. The world’s press had yet to highlight another serious – yet relatively underreported threat – lurking in the waters off the Somali coast. Namely the menace posed by illegally dumped hazardous toxic chemical and radioactive wastes.

United Nations envoy for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah said there is “reliable information” that European and Asian companies are illegally dumping hazardous toxic chemical wastes, including radioactive wastes, off the Somali coastline. Which could explain why a majority of the Somali pirates are former fisherman who can no longer eke-out a living from their regular fishing grounds due to the environmental destruction caused by the illegal dumping of these toxic chemical and radioactive wastes.

Even though the evidence of this illegal dumping can be traced as far back as 20 years ago, it was the tsunami of December 26, 2004 that literally dumped the evidence of such illegally dumped toxic chemical and radioactive wastes on the beaches of northern Somalia. The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) reported that the tsunami had washed up rusting containers of illegally dumped toxic chemical wastes on the shores of Puntland.

UNEP spokesman Nick Nuttall states that when the barrels were smashed open by the force of the waves, the containers exposed a “frightening activity” that has been going on for more than a decade. The bad news is, is that the UNEP cannot simply send a team of scientists to evaluate and report on the extent of toxic chemical and radioactive waste contamination on the shores of Puntland in Somalia because of the on-going conflict. And the team of scientists could easily be kidnapped, taken hostage then held for ransom by lawless elements running free in Somalia.

Conflict zones and areas with on-going civil war are an attractive site for cheap illegal hazardous toxic chemical waste dumps by highly organized transnational criminal gangs because of the breakdown in the rule of law. The Lebanese civil war of the 1980s has literally mounds of evidence of illegally dumped toxic wastes across the countryside brought there by transnational criminal gangs with enough money to bribe underpaid and overworked government officials to look the other way. These criminal gangs usually charge around US$2.50 per tonne to dump someone’s hazardous waste illegally without questions asked. Given that it costs on average US$1,000 per tonne to legally dispose off hazardous wastes, its no wonder why these criminal gangs are literally making a killing in disposing hazardous wastes in the world’s ungovernable conflict zones.

Given that the war risk insurance and kidnap coverage premiums issued by insurance brokers to maritime shipping firms plying in the Gulf of Aden recently rose by tenfold due to the increase in pirate activity. Shipping firms plying in the Gulf of Aden are now facing risks on two fronts. From the obvious occupational hazards and risks posed by pirates and the other less obvious – but nonetheless grave threat – the occupational health hazards and risks posed by the hazardous toxic chemical and radioactive wastes being illegally dumped in the Gulf of Aden.

Various military personnel policing these waters could face occupational health risks comparable to that faced by allied troops in Operation Desert Storm of 1991. The world’s navies policing the Gulf of Aden could suffer a 21st Century version of the Gulf War Syndrome, especially if their operations involve swimming without any protective gear in these waters. Maybe Capt. Richard Phillips and the US Navy SEAL team who rescued him needs to be examined for toxic chemical waste and radioactive waste exposure since they swam a number of times in the waters of the Gulf of Aden with nary a protective gear. Especially for radioactive cesium 137 which is the most common illegally dumped radioactive waste.