Seat 2A

Well gang, it’s been an interesting repartee - perhaps even a bit maddening to some of you. Has ol’ Seat 2A gone crazy to even bring up this topic? Nah – I was always a bit crazy anyway. This brings back memories of debate class when we occasionally had to argue on behalf of a topic no matter how unpopular. And this one has definitely been that.

This thread got its start after having spent five and a half hours on a transcon last week listening to a guy five rows up in 12A cough up phlegm for the entire flight. Having recently logged 31 flights for 33000+ miles as part of an airline challenge, I’d had more than a few of these situations during the past two weeks, including sitting next to (twice) or within a row of the person coughing (I wasn’t keeping count – a few times) and snuffling. It wasn’t pleasant – for anyone in the vicinity including the cougher. To be honest, on the flight that precipitated this “outburst” of mine if you will, the coughing didn’t become annoying until about three hours into the flight. Jeesh! When is this guy gonna quiet down! Why the heck didn’t he take something before the flight? A cough with that much phlegm didn’t just materialize on the way to the airport… And if it’s bad back here, think of the poor people that were sat next to or within a row of this guy...

Was I sympathetic to the coughing guy? No. Not in the least. I’d walked up and used the mid-cabin lav once and when he wasn’t coughing he was reading a book. He certainly didn’t appear to be dying and again, I couldn't help but wonder why on earth hadn’t this guy the decency to take a cough suppressant before the flight? If he'd gotten all sweaty and smelly before getting on the plane, wouldn't we expect him to have used an anti-perspirant? Be it olfactory or aural, there's still a negative impact on fellow passengers that out of respect to them can and should be addressed.

Some of you raise some excellent and very valid points regarding the transmission of illnesses as well as concerns that people who are affected by heart disease, high blood pressure or diabetes might have as well as those using anti-depressants. A lot of people reading the instructions and warning labels of OTC medications see things like “may cause serious side effects” and get very concerned. Who do these warnings apply to? Are they just legalese designed primarily to protect the drug manufacturers? Do they apply to me?

So – I made a call to my clinic as well as the Fairbanks Hospital and two different pharmacies to get their take on the situation. To wit - are there any reasons why someone who's got a bad cough or cold couldn't take an OTC cough or cold medication prior to flying; particularly with regard to heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes or the use of MOAIs? Here’s what they ALL said. First, call your doctor if you have concerns. As a general rule however:

1. People with high blood pressure that is controlled shouldn’t have any concerns with using OTC cough suppressants or cold medications over the short term (defined as a day or two). This also applies to people with heart disease.

2. The main issue for diabetics is sugar in the medicine. There are plenty of sugar-free cough suppressants available these days.

3. The type of anti-depressants that interact poorly with OTC cough and cold meds are almost never used these days. One of the pharmacists I talked with said he’d seen only two instances in the past year where people were on one of these monoamine oxidase inhibitor type medications that would have disqualified them from the use of and OTC cold med.

Then there are always masks.

I think the evidence bears me out that the vast majority of people who are coughing it up on a plane – for whatever reason – could often do more than they’ve apparently done to control their symptoms. I’m not going to go out there and confront sick people because of this. As always, I’ll just sit there and bear it out like the rest of you. Still, I went ahead and posted my thoughts on this and that’s been that. It's not a demand that sick people change their ways. It's just an issuance of my thoughts on the situation and put out there for debate. I know I've taken an unpopular position that many of you disagree with on a number of points. And now, judging by the recent involvement of the moderator, some of you don’t even like me! Oh well. You’ll get over it in a couple of days. My advice is take two aspirin and a shot of bourbon and check back on a different thread.

Thanks again to most of you for your input and insight. It's been an education. Happy contrails, everyone. Fly in good health!