The Fair Air Coalition
is a tax-exempt, non-profit, charitable
support and advocacy organization run by airline passengers for
the benefit of airline passengers. It focuses primarily on education
and credible research into health problems induced by air travel.
The Fair Air Coalition is involved in:
1. Focusing media attention on aviation health issues.
2. Educating
legislators and the flying public on flight-induced maladies.
3. Understanding
flight-related health problems through credible research.
4. Providing testimony which directly relates airline
passenger health to aircraft toxicity.
To become a member of the Fair Air Coalition,
send a donation, in any amount, or call (808) 828-1919 to donate
by MasterCard, Visa or Amex. The Fair Air Coalition's activities
are supported by donations.
In 1997, there was another news story about
contagious tuberculosis on commercial jets. Two Scottish television
executives caught a drug-resistant strain of TB on a flight.
The airline, Sabena, is commended for notifying all the passengers.
The Scottish TV executives were able to start treating themselves
at an initial stage of the illness.
How many airline flights are so dangerous?
The airlines' common denial of
the risks exacerbated by their equipment and practices is a sore
point of contention for passengers who become ill, even with
a simple cold or flu.
For many of us, flying can injure our health
and wellbeing. But, for those with serious medical conditions,
the experience can have deadly consequences.
While it is known that deaths have occurred
during flights, there is no data on the exact numbers. (The airlines
aren't telling.) In addition, some passengers who become ill
on board, die after landing.
People with pulmonary disease, or those
who have had recent heart attacks, should avoid flying altogether
according to a spokesperson for the 3,500 member Aerospace Medical
Association. The comments were made in May 1998 at a meeting
of the Space and Underwater Research Group of the World Federation
of Neurology.
The Association has made a number of additional
recommendations for medically-challenged airline passengers in
its recently released guidelines.
The guidelines suggest that doctors should
warn those with epilepsy, emphysema, asthma, mental illness,
heart disease, recent strokes, and other chronic medical conditions
of the potential health problems associated with flying.
Women pregnant with multiple fetuses are
also among the groups under caution by the Association guidelines.
Apparently, premature delivery can pose a problem.
The Association is optimistic that some
airlines are now carrying defibrillators--a portable electric-shock
device for saving lives in cases of heart failure.
Luckily for us, the defibrillators are
only being used in cases of heart failure--and not to keep people
in their seats!
Further information about how flying can
be life threatening is found in my book JET SMART, along with
numerous recommendations including those that were given at the
meeting for passengers who are considered "healthy."
*
The stresses of getting to the airport, taking off and flying
in a cramped cabin with low oxygen and low air pressure, dry
air, noise and vibration are very hard on anyone's body, and
can be overwhelming for passengers who may be ill, or who may
have compromised immune systems.
*
Passengers risk blood clots from
sitting in cramped positions on long flights. To prevent swelling
and blood clots, passengers need to get up and move around every
hour, drink lots of water, and avoid alcohol which causes dehydration.
*
People taking medication on a strict
schedule, such as insulin for diabetes, need to change the timing
of their doses because jetlag throws off the body's clocks.
Flying is definitely not for the feint
of heart--that's for sure. The airlines need to know that healthy
flying is important to us.
The tips offered on this website and in
Diana Fairechild's groundbreaking book JET
SMARTER are for making the best of a compromised situation.
Yet wouldn't it be nice if you didn't have to think of each detail
every time you fly? The Fair Air Coalition looks ahead.
Many of the challenging conditions of air
travel that compound jetlag and risk your health and peace of
mind are preventable. What is required is an industry revolution.
The airlines must come to understand that you value your well-being,
and you are willing to stand up for it. There is turbulence ahead,
but this is not the time to remain seated.
Memberships in The Fair Air Coalition are
$30 a year.
Please contribute now.
For other suggested action steps, please
see:
The
Complaint Department.
Thanks to Ann
Schneider for the flyana banner and Fair Air Coalition banner--artwork
which I love and appreciate on this website and to Carol
McCullough for the fear of flying illustration and other
technical support.
