APPENDIX 42
Supplementary memorandum submitted by
the Civil Aviation Authority
Having seen a transcript of the evidence given
by Mervyn Cranshaw of BALPA to the Transport Select Committee
on 11 January I realise that, in the supplementary information
we provided last week, the CM should have provided an additional
note concerning research into issues to do with cabin air quality.
At the hearing on 11 January, issues were raised
concerning research, and specifically the suggestion by BALPA
that the CM ignores the health and safety requirements of aircraft
and cabin crew. It was also suggested by BALPA that very serious
research" was being conducted by the FM in which the CM had
declined to take part. I should make you aware that the CM has
been taking the following steps to address this matter.
The Aviation Health Working Group, chaired by
the DfT but supported by the CAA and the CM Head of the Aviation
Health Unit, has put all BALPA's data to the independent Committee
on Toxicity. The purpose of that Committee's review is to ascertain
whether any evidence exists to link long-term health effects with
exposure to toxic chemicals in theaircraft cabin. In research
findings published to date, including an investigation undertaken
by the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology
(2000), and CM sponsored research into fume events by Porton Down
and the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (2004), no such
link has been substantiated. However, the CAA's mind is not closed
on the matter, which is why, supported by the DfT, this issue
has been passed to the Committee on Toxicity to consider the evidence
available and we await their independent report.
As regards work in the US, the FM has funded
some research but there are questions about the hypothesis being
tested (the research starts from a presumption of toxic effects),
the study design, and the appropriateness of undertaking secondary
research before proof of causation has been demonstrated. In our
view, the work being done in the UK is more likely to lead to
valid conclusions on these questions than is the research so far
initiated by the FM.
1 February 2006
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