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Air Purification SystemOne of the main concerns on the flying public’s mind is the spread of infectious diseases on board aircraft. However, many travellers do not realised that the air within the cabin is a continuously flowing mixture of air from outside the cabin and highly filtered recirculated air from within the aircraft.

Numerous scientific studies of cabin air quality have shown that contaminants do build up in the cabin and the filtered and high-volume airflow supplied to the cabin is clean and safe. Most micro-organisms can not pass through the filters of the highly efficient air recirculation systems on today’s jets. These systems deliver a mix consisting of one-half outside air and one-half filtered recirculated. They normally produce between 14 and 20 cubic feet of air per person each minute.

However, coliform bacteria can indicate some health risk in our airborne water and air systems. Coliforms are a group of closely related bacteria, most of which are natural and common inhabitants of the soil and ambient waters (such as lakes and rivers) and the digestive tracts of humans and other warm-blooded animals. Normally, the bacteria will not cause illness but there is a possibility that their presence could become an issue for some passengers. Of course, there is potential for diseases to spread whenever groups of people are collected together in enclosed environments for a period of time.

Passengers who become ill during or after a flight may have been infected from another passenger or via previous exposure before travelling.

Several industry groups have undertaken research into the hazards and possible remedies for cabin air quality issues. CabinAir is one of the largest and most important studies to be carried out on the environment in aircraft cabins. The CabinAir programme was conducted over a three-year period, from January 2001 to December 2003. Funded under The European Commission’s 5th Framework Programme and coordinated by European-based companies BRE and TNO, the research study investigated air quality in commercial passenger aircraft and developed solutions to provide an enhanced cabin environment for passengers and crew.

The project included participants from 16 organisations and seven nations. Various segments of the Aerospace Industry were represented, including airframe and engine manufacturers, certification bodies, several airlines, environmental research groups and the European Commission. The research group monitored contaminates on 50 flights on board participating airlines, including KLM and SAS.

The CabinAir study produced comprehensive information on the relationship between air quality and factors including: the performance of environmental control and filtration systems; air distribution; energy consumption; and the environmental impact of fuel burn. The group hopes its findings will help minimise fuel consumption and environmental impacts, in addition to developing performance specifications and draft European Pre-Normative Standards.

After completing its research, the consortium concluded that the levels of chemical and biological contaminates were less than those found in many ground based work environments such as office buildings and hospitals.

European pilots group takes action: Despite the findings of CabinAir, concerns remain regarding the possible contamination of the cabin air supply. For example, the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) has since launched its own initiative to deal with cabin air issues. The organisation, which represents more than 8,000 of Britain’s 10,000 airline pilots, continually tells its members to log all instances where cabin air becomes contaminated for any reason.

On a ore in-depth level, BALPA recently teamed with London’s University College and Imperial College to submit a detailed research proposal to the UK Aviation Health Working Group. “Our detailed proposal offers a cost effective way of sampling ‘contaminated air events’ as they happen, suggests a medical protocol for dealing with affected crew members, and will give us a clear idea of the scale of the problem we may be facing,” says Captain Martin Alder, BALPA’s Flight Safety Group chairman.

BALPA has also helped launch the first world conference on “Contaminated Air Protection: Air Safety and Cabin Air Quality”, which was held this April at London’s Imperial College. The Aviation Health Institute, a non-profit British organisation, was a participant in the BALPA conference. Farrol Kahn, the institute’s director, told Aircraft Interiors International that leakage of organophosphates into the cabin air supply was still a topic of grave concern. “These fumes, haze or smoke result from engine oil or hydraulic fluid entering the cabin prior to take-off or during the flight. As they are neurotoxins they can cause short or long term ill health, in some cases producing Alzheimer’s symptoms,” he explained.

When asked to compare aircraft cabins with other enclosed structures (such as a small office building) Kahn claims there is just no comparison. “You can open a window or go outside in an office building, but an aircraft cabin is tightly sealed,” he said. “If a noxious substance enters, there is nothing you can do to protect yourself. Many of the filters currently used do not stop chemicals or other pollutants.”

Recent Solution from Boeing:

Realising the public’s concern regarding the health issues arising from air travel, Boeing is currently doing its utmost to promote the advantages it latest-generation aircraft, the 787 Dreamliner, provides in this field. Besides offering an improved cabin altitude, the Dreamliner will also feature a next-generation air purification system, supplied by Donaldson Company Inc, which removes gaseous irritants and odours from the aircraft cabin, as well as allergens, bacteria and viruses.

Boeing has also received much praise from the aforementioned BALPA, for the implementation of “bleed-free” engines, which replace bleed air and hydraulic power with electrically powered compressors and pumps. Overall, Boeing is confident the Dreamliner will provide passengers with an improved inflight experience, partly due to the findings of a two-year cabin environment study conducted with the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).

Boeing’s decision to enhance purification of the Dreamliner’s cabin air resulted from the participant’s responses to a variety of environmental factors examined during the DTU study. The research determined that a reduction of gaseous contaminants combined with modest increase in humidity provides improved passenger comfort.

Air purification was found to be a more important factor than increased humidity for addressing many aspects of passenger complaints, including eye irritation and general dryness.

The DTU/Boeing study evaluated the individual and combined effects of both gaseous filtration and increased humidity. Participants experienced prolonged exposure (up to 11 hours) at different humidity levels with and without air purification. Contaminant and humidity levels were controlled at different airflows. Participants reported on their perceived ratings of air quality and the intensity of a number of symptoms such as level fo eye and throat irritation, dryness, headache and general comfort. In addition, researchers ran objective medical tests to measure the effect on the eyes, nose and skin. Additional studies are being planned to help understand the connection between humidity, air purification and other factors.

The researchers’ hypothesis before the studies was that humidity would be the key factor in improving comfort. While they found that increased humidity is beneficial, they also realised that air purification has an ever greater effect.

In the USA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) jointly regulate drinking water safely on airlines. The EPA regulates the parent systems that supply waters to the airports and the drinking water once it is on board the aircraft. The agency also regulates water quality in public water systems in accordance with the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). The regulatory structure for all public water systems, including aircraft, relies upon self-monitoring and reporting of results to the EPA.

The EPA issued a notice titled Water Supply Guidance 29 in 1986 in an effort to tailor SDWA requirements for public water systems and initiated an accelerated rule-making process to develop regulations for water onboard aircraft after discovering an unnerving level of airborne contaminates during a recent period of research. During the summer of 2004, EPA conducted water quality sampling of one or more galley water taps, water at seven US airports. In September 2004, the agency announced 12.7% (20 aircraft) of the tested aircraft were found to be positive for the presence of total coliform.

(From Aircraft Interiors International)


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