Aircraft cabin air ‘no more harmful than office air’
By ANIWednesday, October 6, 2010
LONDON - A new study has revealed that an aircraft cabin is no more of a health threat to passengers than sitting in an office.
According to the research by the National Research Council, an airplane is as likely to make you sick as any other enclosed environment, such as a cinema or an underground train.
“There is always an increased risk of infection whenever you enter a confined space, but an aircraft cabin is no worse an environment than the office you sit in every day,” the Daily Mail quoted Mark Gendreau, an aviation medicine expert, as saying.
He said cabin air was refreshed about 15 times an hour, compared with fewer than 12 times an hour in an office building.
On most trans-Atlantic jets, the air is filtered through hospital-grade filters that are designed to remove 99.97 per cent of bacteria and the tiny particles that carry viruses.
Cabins are also separated into ventilation systems covering every seven rows or so to limit the spread of germs through the plane.(ANI)
