Why breathing in the air can kill

Toxic fumes in cabin air are a health risk to frequent flyers and aircrew, a coroner has said in a landmark report.

Stanhope Payne, the senior coroner for Dorset, UK, said people regularly exposed to the fumes circulating in aircraft risked "consequential damage to their health".

Payne, who is inquiring into the death of Richard Westgate, a British Airways pilot, called on BA and the aviation authorities to take "urgent action to prevent future deaths".

Most airline passengers, who fly only occasionally, will not be affected by the problem, but some frequent travellers who are genetically susceptible to the toxins could become ill.

Payne's call will be welcomed by campaigners who have raised similar concerns for years.

His report is the first official UK recognition of so-called "aerotoxic syndrome", a phenomenon long denied by airlines but which is blamed by some people for the deaths of at least two pilots and for numerous other incidents, in some of which pilots have passed out. Co-pilots can normally take over, but campaigners claim the syndrome is a suspected cause of some mid-air disasters.

Frank Cannon, a lawyer acting for airline aircrew, said: "This report is dynamite. It is the first time a British coroner has come to the conclusion that damage is being done by cabin air."

Cannon said he was acting for about 50 aircrew allegedly affected by the syndrome who worked for airlines including Emirates, Cathay Pacific, Etihad, Thomas Cook and Easy Jet. He also represents two passengers.

Commercial passenger planes use a system that compresses air from the engines to pressurise the passenger cabin. But it can malfunction, allowing excess oil particles to contaminate the air.

In a confined space, with the air constantly recirculated, the cumulative effect on frequent flyers, especially aircrew, can be harmful, Payne said.

Westgate, a senior first officer, died in 2012 after claiming he had been poisoned by fumes.

The coroner said examinations of Westgate's body "disclosed symptoms consistent with exposure to the organophosphate compounds in aircraft cabin air".

The coroner said "the occupants of aircraft cabins are exposed to organophosphate compounds with consequential damage to their health".

He said there is no real-time monitoring to detect failures in cabin air quality and that no account is taken of "genetic variation" that makes some people intolerant of the exposure".