Aviation Health Working Group minutes: 5 April 2002
AHWG/05-04-02/Note
Aviation Health Working Group Meeting
Friday 5 April 2002, Great Minster House, London SW1
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Present |
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Chairman |
Michael Smethers |
DTLR/MLD |
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Secretary |
Martin O'Brien |
DTLR/MLD |
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Dr Bill Maton-Howarth |
DH |
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Dr Amal Rushdy |
DH |
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Tom Hamilton |
CAA/SRG |
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Peter Chittenden |
CAA/SRG |
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Simon Evans |
AUC |
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Sandy Mitchell |
BALPA |
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Bruce D'Ancy |
BALPA |
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Peter North |
BAR UK |
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George Blundell-Pound |
BATA |
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Dr Nigel Dowdall |
BATA |
Item 1: Minutes of the last inclusive AHWG meeting (11 January 2002)
1.1 The minutes of the last meeting were agreed as an accurate record. The Chair noted that outstanding action points included for DTLR to circulate a copy of their correspondence with the Clerk to the House of Lords Select Committee. DTLR also needed to analyses to the BATA paper on in-flight medical emergencies.
1.2 The Chair asked whether a copy of the translation of a court judgement in Germany on an air related DVT case had been circulated. [Note a copy of an email report from Lufthansa accompanies the circulation of this minute, no further action is necessary].
Action: DTLR to undertake outstanding action points from 11 January as indicated above.
Item 2: Chair's introductory remarks
2.1 The Chair indicated that the level of interest in aviation health issues continued to be high. Since the last inclusive meeting the Sunday Times had initiated a campaign on seat pitch, which in general had not been particularly helpful. Cases of DVT linked to air travel continued to be reported in the media, including two recent cases of passengers in business class. The Chair indicated that David Jamieson was due to meet David Kidney MP and John Smith MP to discuss their concerns on DVT on 16 April. The Chair also informed the Group that Baroness Wilcox had recently asked three Parliamentary Questions covering the Government's advice on DVT, seat pitch and HEPA filters.
2.2 Sandy Mitchell asked whether David Kidney's Private Member's Bill entitled 'Health (Air Travellers)' had any implications for the work of this Group. The Bill is due for its second reading on 10 May. The Chair indicated that the proposal could be discussed in the Group should it pass the second reading stage.
2.3 The Chair outlined the ongoing work of the AHWG subgroup looking at the respective roles and responsibilities of the CAA and HSE for aviation health. The next steps were for DTLR to prepare a draft submission, including a draft consultation letter, which would be shown to the HSC and the CAA board before going to DTLR Ministers. The Chair indicated that on current thinking there would be a likely need for the AHWG to continue in some form since aviation health raised issues on which political judgement needed to be made. The Chair hoped that a public consultation would follow submission to Ministers, and indicated that all organisations around the table would be among those involved in the consultation.
Item 3: Research
3.1 Cabin Air
3.1.1 Bill Maton-Howarth reported that a specification had been developed, aimed at expanding the range of aircraft included within CABINAIR, and in particular older aircraft. The research sub group would shortly be putting this formally to BRE.
3.2 Update on WHO
3.2.1 Bill Maton-Howarth confirmed that WHO had obtained only €2M of the original €12M they were seeking, and had therefore missed the 1 April start date. While they had been able to separate an initial €4.5M package, a substantial shortfall remained. Bill Maton-Howarth and Peter Smith had met representatives from WHO and the Commission on 27 March, and this meeting confirmed that WHO had very few options left to pursue. In addition Fritz Rosendal, the academic working on the epidemiological package, had recently resigned from the scientific committee because of the lack of progress. Dr Rosendal was also indicating that he intended to reserve the package as his intellectual property. It was agreed that this would be likely to present a further barrier, particularly as the epidemiological work is a large part of the initial package.
3.2.2 Nigel Dowdall identified recent media reports (Ref: The Times 4 April page 32) indicating that the Australian Ross Baker research had now got underway. In addition South African Airways was undertaking a separate piece of work to carry out health checks on volunteer passengers.
3.2.3 In summary the Chair underlined that we were not giving up on the WHO proposals yet, especially since the European Commission money would not be forthcoming if the UK went it alone. It was agreed that the AHWG research subgroup would need to keep in touch with any outside work that was underway, and that they should continue efforts to get the WHO package started, including considering whether to seek Ministerial approval to increase the UK contribution.
Action: Peter Smith and Bill Maton-Howarth to meet during the week beginning 8 April to agree next steps.
Item 4: Seat Pitch
4.1 The Chair drew the Group's attention to the paper AHWG/10/1 which describes a set of definitions for seat spacing.
4.2 George Blundell-Pound stated that the middle seat in a group of 3 on JMC, and other, airlines have a larger width that the window or aisle seat. George Blundell Pound suggested that introducing a definition of this nature could work against some of these improvements for passengers.
4.3 The Chair acknowledged the difficulties that airlines have in providing information, but underlined that this exercise was intended only to establish an agreed definition. Airlines would be under no obligation to make seat width information available, but if they did so it should be on a consistent basis.
4.4 Simon Evans confirmed that passengers wanted reliable information and in particular comparative data. It was accepted that there would remain differences between the dimensions and the space available to passengers, but a consistent basis for measuring dimensions was a step in the right direction.
4.5 Nigel Dowdall argued that having two separate width measurements was potentially confusing. Furthermore, unless a common definition could be secured across Europe, UK airlines would be potentially disadvantaged, for example where they were constrained about how they responded to competitors' advertising claims.
4.6 Simon Evans commented that seat width was unlikely to be a primary influence on passenger choice. The Chair endorsed this and indicated that seeking European agreement was unlikely to be achievable in any realistic timetable. The Chair reminded the Group that the Government had committed itself to introducing an unambiguous set of definitions for seat dimensions, and that this would be delivered by the proposals before the Group. If UK airlines could demonstrate that this would introduce a commercial distortion DTLR would consider this further. The Chair acknowledged that this was a complex area, which would need careful handling in the letter accompanying the diagram and explanatory definitions.
Action: DTLR to circulate a draft covering letter to the Group for agreement, followed by formal circulation of the diagrams and definitions to industry, consumer groups and other interested parties.
Item 5: HEPA filters
5.1 The Chair drew the Group's attention to the relevant paragraph in the Government's response to the House of Lords report: "The vast majority of passengers flying on UK aircraft will experience HEPA standard filtration, but the Aviation Health Working Group will continue to promote the use of HEPA standard filtration on those aircraft where such standards are not achieved."
5.2 The Chair set out two issues for consideration, firstly how accurately one could estimate the number of passengers benefiting from HEPA filtration, and secondly the action that could be taken to promote the use of HEPA as a standard. Peter Chittenden's email estimating the numbers of aircraft with and without HEPA filtration was circulated to the Group.
5.3 Nigel Dowdall commented that HEPA covers 5 separate types of standard, and HEPA could mean as low as 85% effectiveness. In comparison BA shorthaul 737s have a 2-stage filter that are not HEPA with 95% effectiveness. It was noted that 95% was equivalent to hospital standards and that this far exceeded ordinary work environments or other forms of travel.
5.4 The Chair noted that while the House of Lords' recommendation and Baroness Wilcox's recent PQ refer to the highest standard of HEPA filtration, the Government's response was phrased in terms of HEPA. The Chair thanked CAA and BATA for the information they had provided to date. CAA and BATA indicated that it would be possible to refine this data and include information on passenger miles, the extent to which new design aircraft incorporate highest standard HEPA, and information on how many don't have the highest standard HEPA fitted but potentially could.
5.5 Nigel Dowdall indicated that the cost to BA of converting the current non-HEPA standard would be £25,000 every 15 months (55 737s and 28 757s @ £350 per filter).
Action: CAA and BATA to liaise further in setting out statistics on the level of HEPA coverage, for this to be provided to DTLR by May 17 in time for the next AHWG.
Item 6: John Smith's PQs on air flow
6.1 The Chair explained that John Smith MP had recently tabled 4 similar PQs relating to the allegation that pilots reduce airflow during flights to save money. The response had drawn on the finding of the House of Lords Inquiry that there was no basis for this claim.
6.2 Sandy Mitchell clarified BALPA's position; that pilots operate air conditioning systems in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. Because these systems are manufactured with over capacity, on a flight with reduced passenger numbers the systems are designed to operate at a lower flow rate. This improves the fuel economy which has an obvious financial as well as environmental saving, while maintaining the amount of fresh air per passenger. In addition reducing the re-circulation rate helps to maintain the level of humidity in the cabin which is of benefit to passenger comfort.
6.3 George Blundell-Pound added that on older aircraft changes to flow rate were achieved by manual manipulation of the settings. Modern aircraft settings are automatic. Depending on passenger numbers crew instruct the computer to work on a lower passenger load. Sandy Mitchell also pointed out that crew on Boeing aircraft will reduce flow during cruise to improve economy. He emphasised that this was in line with the manufacturers operating instructions, and that the inherent over-capacity in the air conditioning systems would still ensure 10m3/per minute flow per passenger, well in excess of oxygen requirements.
Item 7: House of Lords recommendations
7.1 George Blundell-Pound agreed to submit BATA's update on progress against House of Lords recommendations aimed at airlines in writing.
Action: BATA to provide written update on progress by 17 May
Item 8: ICAO state letter on air travel and health
8.1 DTLR's draft reply to state letter AN 5/17-02/12 had been circulated to the Group as paper AHWG/10/3. The Group confirmed that they were content with the approach taken. The Chair indicated that, subject to minor changes, DTLR would submit this response to ICAO.
AOB
9.1 Sandy Mitchell gave an update on the work of the cosmic radiation group, which was shortly intending to issue advisory material for flight crew. It was agreed that this should be made available to frequent flyers, who may also fall under the category of occupationally exposed to cosmic radiation. The Chair agreed to include this on the agenda for the next exclusive meeting with a view to HSE distributing this advice to employers.
Action: To include an item on cosmic radiation for discussion at the next AHWG meeting.
9.2 Amal Rushdy circulated to the Group a journal report on DVT produced by Kings College Hospital. Amal Rushdy indicated that she would be finding out more to ensure DH was kept informed of any future work on this topic and had arranged for the paper to be epidemiologically reviewed.
9.3 Nigel Dowdall informed the Group that the British Thoracic Society (BTS) had issued guidelines on flying for those affected by lung illness. The BMA had contacted BA to ask whether they wished to fund the distribution of the article to all GPs, which BA had declined. DH agreed to look into whether this should be distributed to medical practitioners, and if so how.
9.4 The Chair indicated that the dates for the next inclusive and exclusive meetings scheduled for 17 May and 28 June would need to be changed. In addition dates for the remainder of year needed to be established.
Action: DTLR to re arrange dates and propose meeting dates for July to December 2002. [Note this will be done separately by email].
MLD3
April 2002
