What everyone should know about air travel.

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 FAIRECHILD'S PASSENGER BILL OF RIGHTS

By Diana Fairechild

First Published in May 2003 in Strategies for the Wise Passenger

"Diana Fairechild likens air flight to childbirth. In her simile the passenger is like the baby and the jet the womb which, unlike mom's, fails to adequately sustain the well-being of its inhabitants." -Jill Engledow, The Maui News

"Former flight attendant Diana Fairechild flew 10 million miles before health problems grounded her, a direct result, she says, of exposure to pesticides and other chemicals on commercial aircraft. Now, seven years later, Fairechild's campaign to alert travelers about the dangers of spraying bug killers on airplanes is being waged in cyberspace. From her home Hawaii, Fairechild produces Flyana.com, a well-researched, engagingly personal series of columns on the Internet's World Wide Web." -Laura Bly, Los Angeles Times

"Hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation in the central nervous system, can occur when not enough air is put into the cabins, says Diana Fairechild." -Earth Journal

"There's plenty of consumer- oriented airline advice on Fairechild's Web site." -USA Today

"I would like to order 20 copies of Jet Smart which I will distribute to my frequent flying colleagues." -Noel Brown, MD, United Nations, Environment Director

"Thank you so much Diana Fairechild for coming forward and saying what needs to be said about the airline industry. You are a real hero." -thepowerhour.com

"The thing I enjoy only slightly less than a tooth extraction is flying... Fairechild, still perky after what amounts to 300 circumnavigations of the globe, said that the mostly non-lethal dangers of air travel amount to one of the great unexplored environmental health issues of the day...Considering how many of us this affects, this lone voice is well worth hearing." -John Bogert, Copley Newspapers

"Ms. Fairechild, an activist to clean up the skies, deals decisively with such thorny (and in many cases previously undisclosed) in-flight environmental issues as pesticide spraying (which she calls 'killer mists'), toxic chemicals, radiation, ozone, bad air, noise, g-forces and electromagnetic pulses. Ms. Fairechild has gathered a mountain of information during her 21 years in the skies... and gives the reader her personal spin on each." -National Law Journal

"Diana Fairechild's book Jet Smart dropped a bomb in Washington and the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation changed policy." -Ed Randegger, Environ

       

ARTICLE 1. POISON PROTECTION

Spraying pesticide on airline passengers and in aircraft cabins must be stopped. If pesticide is used, airlines must disclose on which flights it is sprayed with the brand name of the pesticide and its symptoms of poisoning (both mild and acute).

ARTICLE 2. FRESH AIR

Passengers must be provided the same quality air (percentage of oxygen) that pilots get; for many decades pilots have been getting more than ten times the amount of "fresh air." Supplemental oxygen must be readily available on flights to anyone suffering from hypoxia (oxygen deprivation).

ARTICLE 3. DRINKING WATER

Adequate potable drinking water must be provided on all commercial aircraft—at the very least, 8 ounces per hour per person. It is essential that crew and passengers consume adequate good-quality drinking water in order to prevent the many serious side effects of dehydration, such as deep vein thrombosis, fatigue, and brain fog.

ARTICLE 4. SMOOTH TURBULENCE

The airlines and their partners in government need to use high-tech measures to forecast whatever atmospheric conditions can toss about a jet in mid air. Technology to eliminate or at least vastly reduce clear air turbulence must now be made available to airlines. While we wait for the implementation of this technology, airlines should drop the euphemisms in emergency briefings and offer passengers solid information on how to protect themselves from turbulence-related injuries.

ARTICLE 5. REDUCE DISEASES

Cabin air contamination from contagious diseases must be treated as an "airworthiness" issue, i.e., if clean air is not delivered to passenger, then planes must be grounded. High efficiency air filters must be installed on all aircraft and checked before every flight. People with known airborne diseases must not be permitted to fly without a doctor's assurance that their illness is out of its contagious phase. The airlines must not be permitted to impose penalty charges on passengers who act responsibly by changing their reservations due to contagious diseases.

ARTICLE 6. REDUCE TOXINS

Air contamination by toxins must be treated as an airworthiness issue. Toxins can cause cancer, genetic mutations, and death. Sources of toxins in airplane cabins include, but are not limited to, hydraulic fluid leaks, engine oil leaks, jet fuel exhaust, and cabin furnishings. If there is any suspicion of toxins in an airplane cabin, passengers and crew must be offered blood tests.

ARTICLE 7. AGING AIRCRAFT

The FAA must be restrained from issuing waivers of safety rules for aging aircraft. All past requests for exemptions must be made public. The age of every commercial airplane must be published and made readily available to passengers at airports before boarding.

ARTICLE 8. SAFE CARGO

Hazardous materials and pharmaceutical grade germs and viruses must no longer be permitted as cargo on commercial jets. There is presently a great gap in security between air cargo and passenger operations. It's time to close this gap and make every aspect of aircraft operations safe for passengers.

ARTICLE 9. SAFE WORK RULES

Airline crew of U.S. companies and U.S. air marshals must be offered the same work rules that the government agency OSHA stipulates and enforces for work performed anywhere in the United States. The flying public relies on airline crew and air marshals for their safety, yet airline crews and air marshals now work twelve-, fourteen-, and even sixteen-hour shifts, while also suffering daily from oxygen deprivation, sleep deprivation, and the radical time zone shifts associated with jetlag. It is time to ensure that aviation workers have safe working conditions for their own health and for the safety of the flying public.

ARTICLE 10. REMOVE PREEMTPION

Remove the federal "preemption" that gives airlines immunity from consumer protection laws. Airline passengers have an inalienable right to retain their human rights, one of which is their right to speak when something is wrong on a flight, and another is their right to sue an airline. Our human rights must not be restricted by immunity for the airlines that releases them from their basic obligation to keep people safe.

RECLAIM OUR RIGHTS

Perhaps you now realize, dear reader, that passengers will have to join in the fight to regain their rights, similar to the way nonsmokers had to fight for their right to smoke-free air.

Achieving
smoke-free flights was a hard fight that I participated in for many years. When the airlines finally agreed to smoke-free flights, they dragged it on 12 more years, instituting it incrementally beginning with flights under 2 hours.

Smoke-free air travel, as we know it today on all U.S. airliners, represents years of hard work by consumer activists. Passengers and crew can be grateful to the many people involved every time they take a breath of air on an airliner.

The history of no-smoking air travel is an excellent example of a successful consumer activist movement and a great model for changing other unhealthy and hazardous airline policies.

We now need to join together to ban substances such as pesticides that dangerously contaminate the air on airplanes.

We need to keep in mind that enforcement is key in any future aviation regulations. It can no longer be left to the airlines to regulate themselves or to each passenger to battle case by case with the airlines.

Dear readers, you are cordially invited to join me in airline
passenger advocacy.

           
           
           
       

FROM READERS

"My 87 yr. old mother has had two minor heart attacts a day after her last two flight." --Betty Arnovitz

"I am a retired flight attendant for Northwest Airlines. I was based in Honolulu and, for many years, flew military charters to Midway, Kwajalen, and Aneweto. We heard that the Navy was transporting radioactive materials to Johnston Island. Most of my co-workers have died of cancer and I have just been diagnosed with radiation in my bone marrow." --Karl Wust

           
           
           
         

RELATED PAGES 

The Fair Air Association
Congress debates airplane air quality
Ridiculous laws: spraying passengers with pesticide
Airlines cheat on minimum wage laws
Expert witness in cabin procedures 



FOR MORE DEPTH & INFORMATION, SEE DIANA'S BOOKS AND/OR WRITE TO DIANA
.

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