Air Quality
 

Do FTs care about the Air Quality on-board during Flights?

I was browseing through this website - and - it has some very intriguing information.

I've been flying a lot this past year due to work - and consequently - I haven't gotten any real illness yet (knock on wood) but I do feel the effects of lag and just general tiredness.

http://www.flyana.com/air.html

Do you FTs usually turn the air nozzle on full blast or do you leave it off because it just sends recirculated air? Or is it really fresh air?

:cool:

Turn the nozzles off...
 

I was getting sick more often...I turn the nozzles off and it seems to have helped, though I can't prove causality with any rigor.

I wonder if the dryer air in the cabin (I'm from Houston, where you can make coffee out of the air) dries out the mucous membranes and makes it easier to catch a cold....

My personal and unscientific opinion is that this is more the culprit than anything else. Well, this and the fact that most don't wash their hands.

Quite icky the things one sees and hears (and smells!) when sitting on the jumpseat right next to the lavatory - and you guys think your seats are bad!

Seriously though, there has been some limited scientific study of airborne illness and air travel. In a few rare instances when a person with contagious TB is known to have flown, the CDC has gone back and interviewed as many other passengers as possible to assess risk levels. If I recall correctly, it was found that passenger-passenger transmission was virtually nil, passenger-crew transmission extremely rare - but crew-crew transmission was relatively high. Now one or two small studies do not make hard facts, but it's evidence that your risk up there is likely much lower than many people fear.

Wow - such few posts.

I was some what intrigued by reading various articles on the website (author is a published former intl. FA).

While I'm sure there is a dramatic spin to the way the infomation is presented - I can definitely see strong valid issues presented.