I am an expert in the airline cabin environment and I can help you to be an informed and empowered airline passenger. My tips are experienced-based from flying ten million miles as an international flight attendant/in-flight purser.

I started testing my holistic strategies on Los Angeles to London flights where the jet lag was THE WORST for me. Ultimately, I worked on over 300 nonstops between Los Angeles and London, so I knew very well how the jet lag on that trip affected me and if a remedy worked.

After I stopped flying in 1987, I wrote several books on this subject to help passengers and also with the hope that the airlines would alter their ways. They have. They've gotten worse. In 1978, when the airlines began recirculating cabin air about 25% of the air was no longer fresh. Now, about 80% of the air in airplanes is no longer fresh.

FOUL AIR SURROUNDS YOU & YOU CAN’T OPEN A WINDOW

Most environmentalists today are enrolled in the cause of the Earth’s environment. I have devoted a large part of my life to a much smaller arena, the airline cabin. My constituents are those who fly frequently and are literally being poisoned by foul air, and toxins that are sure to take a toll on your well-being and longevity.

My second year of flying I was injured on the plane, then nearly died from a deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. My doctor cleared me for work after six months, and I went back to flying. All seemed well until the airlines started recirculating the cabin air. Recirculated air has less oxygen and more toxins.

As a result of the pulmonary embolism, my lung began to ache to warn me when there was reduced oxygen in the cabin. "Danger! Something's wrong with the air," it said with alarm. "Ask the captain to correct this."

Some captains increased the fresh air in the cabin, some pretended I was hallucinating. Later it was revealed that these pilots were taking bonuses to fly "fuel efficient" by reducing the passengers' fresh air. After awhile, it seemed that all the pilots were knowingly and ruthlessly depriving passengers and flight attendants of vital oxygen.

For the last nine years I was flying, I conducted my own research on the deteriorating environmental conditions in airplanes. For example, I noticed that when the fresh air in the cabin was reduced, I had trouble thinking. As the in-flight purser, at the end of every flight it was my job to tally the accounts from liquor, headsets, and duty-free purchases. Flying on the around-the-world routes with up to 14 other flight attendants selling drinks, etc., sometimes I'd end up with bills and coins in a dozen currencies. Then, in the last 30 minutes of the flight while balancing the books, I found that when there was plenty of fresh air on board, I had no problem doing the currency conversions, etc. But when the air was re-circulated, I had trouble with the accounting, as well as difficulty breathing.

As the in-flight purser, I was in and out of the cockpit. I had a key and would let myself in. In those days, there were three pilots. One night flight I entered the cockpit and all three of them were asleep. Most of my flying was on night flights and I felt it was my responsibility to regularly check on the pilots. While I was in the cockpit I learned where the air switches were and I would glance at them and compare my aching lung with the switches. There was no doubt about it. My body knew what was going on in my work environment.

When I was in the cockpit, I also enjoyed the oxygen-rich air there. Subsequent research revealed that pilots got ten times more fresh air than passengers in economy. The ratio is certainly greater now.

PESTICIDES ARE MADE TO KILL!

My first book, Jet Smart, published five years after I stopped flying, had a chapter called "Killer Mists" that included a list, which I had compiled, of countries around the world where airline passengers got sprayed with pesticide.

As "Killer Mists" made it's way around the world, Jet Smart, became "an underground hit" according to USA Today and the U.S. Department of Transportation developed a sudden interest in the pesticide issue; they intervened with the offending countries and nineteen ceased the practice sparing millions of passengers toxic exposures to a chemical that injures the brain and nervous system. Today, unfortunately, 22 countries still require it.

"Diana Fairechild's book Jet Smart dropped a bomb in Washington, and the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation changed policy," said Ed Randegger of Environ Magazine [Aug'92], adding "Diana Fairechild has done more to raise awareness of environmental toxins than anyone we know."

Environ also told its readers that I advised passengers how they could avoid the pesticide spraying. A note from their doctor handed to the Department of Agriculture who met the aircraft would do that. That's how I avoided it for awhile when I was flying. But when other flight attendants also produced notes, they refused to allow any of us off the plane before the insecticiding.

A year later, Dateline NBC flew to Hawaii, where I was living, to interview me about the pesticides. And soon after that aired, I was contacted by a passenger/doctor who had taken my advice not only for himself, but for anyone else on his flight who wanted it. He wrote prescriptions for everyone, and 30 passengers on a flight to Australia requested disembarkation before the insecticiding started.

As the pesticide problem became more widely known, the airlines arranged to spray their aircraft every eight weeks without passengers on board. And for this routine they used a stronger pesticide, a known carcinogen. This is still done today.

MY CREDENTIALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

These experiences ricocheted me into a lifetime of airline cabin environmentalism and passenger rights' activism that has resulted, so far, in these accomplishments:

• Three books and 100 articles on air travel health and safety
• Over 300 media interviews
• 75 speeches to a variety of audiences
• Expert testimony in aviation lawsuits
• Corporate workshop presentations

Although many writers continue to draw freely from my books, articles, and interviews their knowledge does not qualify them as experts in the field of airline passenger health and safety. With my background of airline experience, research and analysis, as well as my record as an expert witness in precedent-setting aviation lawsuits, I am now known as the primary and most reliable researcher on airline passenger health and safety, and the #1 airline insider authority.

HOW CAN I BE OF SERVICE TO YOU?

The solutions for how to stay functional in the flying environment today are part of what I do as a consultant and workshop presenter. Anyone who flies frequently should read my books and utilize my services.

U.S. Secretary of State in the 1950s, John Foster Dulles, blamed his travel fatigue for causing the Suez Crisis. What's messing up for you when you fly? I'd like to help.