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Air Travel and Health (Science and Technology Committee Report)

One of the pleasures of being on your Lordships' Science and Technology Committee is that every inquiry is a voyage of discovery. Early on in this inquiry, I discovered that air travel is political. It is political with a small ““p””—not party-political, but people political. The noble Lord, Lord Sutherland, told us that the reason is that air travel is blamed for all sorts of health problems, such as being poisoned by the cabin air or crippled by the seats. It is blamed for causing blood clots through inactivity, and for carrying viruses from one continent to another, as well as causing fatigue and a risk of infections, as the noble Lord, Lord Patel, explained. It is no wonder that we thought it important to update the inquiry that we carried out in 2000 to see what progress had been made in researching these concerns—or unbelief in the public mind, as the noble Lord, Lord Sutherland, put it. There has been a lot of public and media interest, and I suppose that, too, stimulated our return to this topic. Looking at the progress that has been made, I think that the Government deserve some credit. In our 2000 report, we listed a number of research needs and I think, as the noble Lord, Lord Sutherland, said, that the Government have responded to them. They have set up alone or jointly with the research organisations and the EU a number of research projects in response to our list. The research involves many departments of the Government—transport, health, science, business, health and safety and the Treasury because of the tax on the seat—and, of course, the airlines themselves. This diversity may be necessary, but there are two problems with it that caused us concern. First, it needs co-ordination and, yes, the Aviation Health Unit is doing that, as the government response says, but people need to know that this work is going on. As I said, health and air travel is ““people political””. People need to know that their concerns are being investigated and dealt with, and the best way of reassuring them is to tell them more about the Aviation Health Unit. When we proposed that, what we had in mind was that the Aviation Health Unit should become some sort of trusted brand. However, in their response, the Government said that they want people to deal with the airlines and other sources of information: the National Health Service, the BMA and the World Health Organisation. That may be logical and sensible administratively, but it does not deal with people's concerns. Airlines are certainly learning a lot about health and flying, but they make varying claims, as competitors do. Government entities are limited by boundaries. We envisaged the Aviation Health Unit having a profile above all that. Indeed, the Aviation Health Unit makes special mention of this in its note about our report on its website, and it says it is happening, so I was disappointed to learn that the chairmanship is going to remain with the Department for Transport and that the profile is going to be kept low. The need for this high degree of trust is demonstrated by the incident report attached to the Minister's letter of 19 June, which the noble Lord, Lord Sutherland, spoke about. The report relates to an incident in September 2007 when, shortly after take off, the commander of a BAe 146 noticed an unusual smell and soon began to feel dizzy. The noble Lord, Lord Broers, spoke about how during our inquiry, we were told of numerous occasions of people feeling ill due to unfiltered air coming into the cabins from the engines of BAe 146 aircraft, and all the Jeremiahs will have said that this is just one more example of that problem. However, the investigation concluded that the smell and the dizziness were caused by the chemicals used for cleaning the toilets. After all the accounts which we heard from air crew and passengers who believed that their health had suffered because of air contamination from the engines, it is going to require a very trusted voice for people to believe that, on this occasion at least, it was the cleaning chemical. This is what happens when matters become political in this way. The same applies to thrombosis. People believe that it is caused by the inactivity and the pitch of the seats in aircraft, but the Wright report found that the same thrombosis was caused by inactivity alone, and that the pitch of the seat is hardly relevant. That applies to any mode of transport or none. Thrombosis can, and does, happen in hospital. Again, we need a trusted voice to explain this. Away from the politics, the Government are to be congratulated on continuing the research and commissioning new research. Airlines are making a welcome effort to provide better information to passengers about how they can reduce the risk of ill health when flying. Much of that advice comes from the Aviation Health Unit website, which carries some authority. That website also publishes a guide for doctors on assessing people's fitness to fly. This authoritative advice can only increase the trust in the AHU, which we are keen to see enhanced. The frequently asked questions on its website are wide-ranging and the answers are detailed, but they do not deal with infection, which the noble Lord, Lord Patel, spoke about. What of the future? Molecular biology may have found a way of resetting our body clock so that we are less disturbed by jet lag, and perhaps that will reduce the effect of flying on our health. Incorporating air travel into the carbon trading system has stimulated a search for more fuel efficiency and less aircraft weight and, presumably, the AHU will be alert to the risk of that affecting air quality or seating space or of carrying viruses and other matters relating to health. Passenger air travel is forecast to grow, and so are our concerns about our quality of life. Therefore, the public's interest in health and air travel will not go away. It will remain political with a small ““p””, so I hope that the Government will continue with research and will tell people about it by raising the profile of the AHU. In closing, I thank my colleagues, our chairman and the Clerks for their leadership and hard work. It has been a pleasure to work with them.