2 Submission 14A, AFAP, p 6 3 Submission 6, Associate Professor Chris Winder, p 12
3.9 Evidence to the Committee presented from pilots, cabin crew and their medical advisors that these generalised symptoms are common to those who have developed symptoms after being exposed to fumes while flying in the BAe 146.
3.10 However, Dr Robert Loblay of the University of Sydney told the inquiry:
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has done population surveys for many years now showing that these non-specific symptoms are present at any one time in 10 per cent of the population. If you survey the population two years later, it is still 10 per cent but they are different people.5
3.11 Dr Loblay went on to state:
Tunnel vision is not a symptom of neurotoxicity. It is not an uncommon symptom in people with acute anxiety and hyperventilation.
I am not denying that there have not been problems with air quality and with fumes and so on in the BAe 146. That is absolutely clear from the evidence the expert panel was presented with. But when a belief system spreads in a population that a particular work or other environment is dangerous, then people come to attribute these common symptoms to their environment. It is a common phenomenon in this area …. People’s beliefs often lead them to mistakenly attribute common symptoms or anxiety symptoms to toxic exposure when they are in an environment where they believe there are toxic chemicals. This is a phenomenon that has been demonstrated in healthy individuals in experimental circumstances as well. So I do not
4 Submission 6, Associate Professor Chris Winder, pp 13-14; see also Submission 5, Dr Jean Christophe Balouet, p 1, Dr Jean Christophe Balouet, Evidence, 13 March 2000, p 172, Submission 2, Dr Mark Donohoe, pp 1-2.
5 Dr Robert Loblay, Evidence, 1 February 2000, p 103
necessarily believe that most of those symptoms that are described are symptoms of chemical neurotoxicity in the way that it has been claimed …6
3.12 The Committee notes that reported incidents of health problems among flight crew arising from claimed fume exposure on BAe 146 aircraft indicate a higher rate of problems than the 10 per cent in the general population quoted by Dr Loblay.7
3.13 Dr Loblay advised:
I accept that when there are leaks and fumes come into the cabin people do experience irritant symptoms - irritation of the eye, nose and throat. Many people experience headache and nausea when they are exposed to unpleasant fumes and smells. That is a pretty common phenomenon. I have no difficulty with that. What I have difficulty with is the claim that flying in these aeroplanes regularly and being exposed to the usual cabin air, leaving aside those single episodes where there are significant leaks, is in any way responsible for long-term adverse health effects or even short-term adverse effects.8
Possible enhanced effect on symptoms from flying
3.14 It has been put to the Committee that symptoms of toxicity from fumes are not only caused by chemical exposure but may be “… exacerbated by the hypoxia of cabin pressure, other chemical exposures (such as carbon monoxide), temperature, humidity, workload or pre-existing health conditions.”9 This phenomenon is described by some in the medical profession as “aerotoxic syndrome” and is now a specialist area for medical and occupational health research.10
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