Toxic fume incidents can make passengers, flight crews sick

Oct 31, 2023

Raychel Armstrong, an active flight attendant and vice president of Transportation Workers Union Local 577, said she experienced toxic fume exposure on the job in April.

"We just started getting nauseous, I got a cough afterwards," she told me. "This is normal for us, but it's something that should never have been normalized in the first place."

It wasn't her first time dealing with fumes in the cabin either.

"For my incidents, I’ve gone to the hospital before because of my symptoms," she said. "We don't understand the repercussions it will have on our body long-term."

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Because of the way airplanes’ ventilation systems are designed, it's possible for toxic fumes to be sucked into the cabin from the plane's other systems, leading to symptoms from coughs and headaches to disorientation and long-term neurological damage.

These toxic fume incidents are relatively rare – between 0.09 and 3.9 per every 1,000 flights, according to a 2015 paper by researchers at Kansas State University – but they’re still a serious concern, especially for flight attendants who are the most likely to be exposed. And even at the low end of that range, the researchers estimated that means 2-3 incidents per day in the U.S. alone.

"If you have a low level chronic exposure over a period of time and then you’re exposed to higher levels, you’re more likely to have serious effects," Judith Anderson, an industrial hygienist in the Association of Flight Attendant's Air Safety, Health and Security Department.

Legislation has been proposed in Congress to step up aircraft cabin air quality monitoring, and toxic fume incidents are likely to get more attention as the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization makes its way through the process on Capitol Hill, but for now there's little travelers can do aside from hope they’re not exposed themselves.

Toxic fume incidents are almost always caused by contamination in an airplane's ventilation system as a result of a design-related issue.

"In all jet aircrafts, except one, (fresh air) has to come in through the engines. It's called bleed air," Thom McDaniel, international vice president with the Transport Worker's Union and a Southwest Airlines flight attendant for 31 years told me. "What happens with a toxic cabin fume event there's oil that leaks out in the engine," and the vapors enter the cabin through the aircraft vents.

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner is the only commercial aircraft currently operating that does not use a bleed air system for cabin ventilation.

Part of the problem, Anderson said, is there's no filter between the air intakes and the cabin vents.

"The B52 was the first bleed air aircraft and in 1952 Boeing released a report that pilots were reporting symptoms … We’re still in this place that this is considered acceptable," she said. "There are no sensors onboard, there are no filters between the engines and the people."

According to experts, the most common signal that a toxic fume event is occurring is a bad smell coming from the plane's air vents.

"People might feel lightheaded, they might feel nauseous, they might have trouble breathing," McDaniel said.

Anderson added that the smell is typically most acute near the air nozzles and typically settles over a number of rows at once. She said the most common symptoms include headaches, disorientation, dizziness, eye, nose or throat irritation and cramping. More severe cases can include other neurological symptoms and can take up to two weeks to appear.

Flight attendants are considered the most at risk because of how much they fly. Pilots are also at heightened risk of exposure, but protocols for toxic fumes call for pilots to immediately don their oxygen masks, while flight attendants do not follow the same procedure.

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"For flight crews, these can be career ending events," McDaniel said.

And even when they don't end an airline professional's career, they can still be debilitating for a while.

"The next day, and this has happened for me on every fume event that I’ve had, I wake up with a pounding headache," Armstrong said. "It's similar to having a hangover, but just horrible."

She added that her symptoms typically last 48 hours after each incident.

While passengers are at lower risk for toxic fume exposure simply because they fly less than airline professionals, the incidents can still be dangerous. However, with few regulations, it can be difficult for passengers to find out if they’ve been exposed or get compensated by the airlines.

"As things stand the only sensor onboard are peoples’ noses," Anderson said. Current regulations do not require airlines to monitor onboard cabin air quality. "Generally speaking it's difficult for a passenger to find out what happened."

McDaniel said if you don't feel well after getting off a flight, it can be a good idea to get yourself checked out.

"You should get to the hospital and at least have blood tests. A lot of the time they test you for CO2, which can be an indication of exposure," he said. "What we would like to do is to develop a test that would prove that you have been exposed."

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As the FAA comes up for reauthorization this year, many advocates are pushing for tighter standards around aircraft cabin air quality and monitoring.

Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., reintroduced the Cabin Air Safety Act in March, which would require air quality sensors to be installed on aircraft and would mandate that the FAA investigate reported toxic fume incidents.

"Passengers and crew deserve to know the air they’re breathing is safe and toxin-free," Blumenthal said in a statement. "Our legislation takes action where the FAA and airline industry haven't—requiring air detector and monitoring equipment, incident reporting, and investigations of these events to ensure a safer travel experience for all Americans."

In the meantime, as frustrating as this is to say, passengers can only hope that the maintenance crews don't accidentally overfill the oil or hydraulic tanks, since those are typically the biggest sources of toxic fume incidents.

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in New York. You can reach him at [email protected]