The UK’s Unite union has begun preparing civil personal injury claims against a number of British airlines on behalf of 17 current and former cabin crew members who believe they have been poisoned by fume events on board aircraft. The legal action relates to both single-event and long-term exposure, according to Unite spokesman Alex Flynn. Unite represents a total of 20,000 cabin crew working for British airlines as well as Qantas and Japan Air Lines. Unite believes the issue of fume events on commercial jet aircraft is “one that the industry really needs to start to get to grips with,” Flynn said. The cases of 43-year-old pilot Richard Westgate and 35-year-old cabin attendant Matthew Bass, whose deaths are being potentially linked to aerotoxic syndrome, have refocused attention on the quality of cabin air.
In its 2013 position paper on the subject, the independent scientific Committee on Toxicity acknowledged that “contamination of cabin air by components and/or combustion products of engine oils … does occur, and peaks of higher exposure have been recorded during episodes that lasted for seconds.” But it also concluded that, “to cause serious acute toxicity, they would have to occur at very much higher concentrations than have been found to date.”
Unite believes the issue is serious enough to call for a public inquiry into the health effects of fume events on commercial aircraft.