#sowhoknew: Business travel. It’s a killer. Literally.
The notion of being a ‘jet setter’ is often held in high regard. The allure of a business class bed and visiting exotic locations sounds incredibly appealing right? Well, you might not think it’s quite so glamorous after reading this article…
Now I don’t wish to sound like some harbinger of doom and put a downer on what some believe is one of the few pleasures they have in their working lives but several recent studies suggest that extensive air travel is incredibly detrimental to your health. Regular readers of my weekly ramblings will know that I always write with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek but even I struggled to find much humour in this subject matter. But I decided that’s no excuse to avoid it. So to kick off the ‘laughs’? Did you know that more people meet their maker each year on board aircraft (around 350 in the U.S alone) than die in plane crashes? I know. It took the smile off my face too.
Beyond the fetid air from other peoples flatulence and someone snorting away with sleep apnoea, what are the more serious health problems associated with regular air travel?
A recent study by The Baylor College of Medicine found that as a ’cause’ of liver cancer, jet lag can be just as harmful as obesity. According to Professor Derek Mann, “Our busy modern lives mean we’re eating later than we should, and we’re not sleeping at the right times. This disrupts our internal ‘body clock’, or circadian rhythm.”
Mann goes on to explain how this circadian rhythm, is directly linked to how our cells manufacture and process energy. These processes are termed ‘cell metabolism’ and it’s their role to create energy by breaking down our food with the liver being involved in the ‘heavy lifting’. However when our metabolism is disrupted (through jet lag) then it can cause the liver to malfunction which can lead to several ailments of which liver cancer is one.
Scientists simulated the effects of jet lag in a laboratory with mice as their subjects. When compared to a control group of mice whose sleeping patterns were not broken, the jet lagged mice displayed a higher incidence of weight gain, fatty livers and liver cancer. Of mice and men? Well clearly we are not a similar species and Prof. Mann concedes this point but with a warning,”It’s a world away from humans. But from a biology perspective, the results are important.”
I wonder if they tried giving the jet lagged rodents some melatonin? Works for me.
Anyway moving on to the joys of Deep Vein Thrombosis (the laughs just keep on coming folks). DVT is one of the most common and disturbing medical issues associated with air travel. Often associated with cramped conditions where the passenger has limited movement, there are significant fluctuations in air pressure and ingesting too much alcohol can all be contributory factors. Basically small blood clots form in the veins of the legs and can then find their way into the heart or lungs.
You might be surprised (scared?) to hear that doctors have suggested that up to a quarter of all people who develop a DVT have recently been on a long-haul flight. Want scarier? There are further studies postulating that it occurs in up to 10 per cent of all people on long-haul flights. Now, many of these clots never end up causing any kind of problem to the host. And for the ones that are affected, it’s difficult to pin the cause on the journey because the symptoms often don’t occur during the flight itself as it’s generally a few weeks later when the clot starts its potentially murderous journey through the body. Now there is a cheery thought.
Professor Karlheinz Peter, deputy director at the Baker IDI Research Institute said, “The longer the flight, the greater the risk. Any flight longer than four hours poses a risk, but it’s those longer than 12 hours that are most problematic.”
And finally, beyond the aforementioned gaseous exchanges, have you ever noticed any strange petrol-like and / or wet dog smells inside the cabin whilst you are flying? Headache on board, feeling dehydrated, or you swiftly develop flu-like symptoms just a couple of days after your flight? Then there is a distinct possibility that you could have been suffering from ‘Aerotoxic Syndrome’.
In 1999, scientists discovered that there were several toxic chemicals (such as ‘tricresyl phosphate’ or TCP for short) which are present in modern synthetic jet engine oils and those same toxins were passing unfiltered into the aircraft cabins. But how the hell do these jet exhaust chemicals get into a sealed plane cabin? Well, warm air is required for both engine propulsion and also for it’s human passengers to breathe at altitude, so some ‘smart’ engineers decided it was a ‘great idea’ to combine the two requirements – bring the air through the engine to heat it and then ‘bleed’ some of it off and pump it into the passenger cabin. This so-called ‘bleed air’ is apparently used in every modern jet, with the exception of the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
What’s more, there is no detection system on board any aircraft to monitor the levels of these contaminants. However, in cases where it’s at least known that passengers and crew have been affected by particularly high levels of TCP (due to faulty engine seals etc.) the industry has at least given these incidents a name – ‘fume events’. In 2007 the UK Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT) reported that ‘fume events’ occur on 1 in every 100 flights. And given there are around 102,000 flights a day, that means roughly 37 million flights a year. Which means, by my rough calculation, circa 372,000 flights per annum could be seriously affected. You do the maths. Cough.
So do you travel? A lot? I do. Am just off a mammoth 27 hour trip from London to Melbourne so maybe I’m not feeling exactly rational. Jet lag can do that to you I guess. Are you concerned? Or Not? Well I am. I travel a fair bit and I would be a liar if I said all this hadn’t bothered me a tad. To conclude, I can only cite the words from George Clooney’s character, Ryan Bingham, in the classic movie ‘Up in the Air’: “Tell me you’re not taking this seriously”.
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