wrote in news:dec3c7c0-b8e7-496f-a525-36a6a6a33410
@j22g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:

Boeing funded a clinical trial to actually determine the effects of
being at an 8000 foot altitude for extended periods, and the results
were published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine. It's
an interesting read: here's the URL Many peer reviewed journal
articles require membership in an appropriate group (usually involving
fees) to be read: this one is freely available.,


http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/357/1/18

For what it's worth, the number of subjects involved, and the
inclusion/exclusion criteria were fairly limited ( a couple of
hundred people, not nearly enough to uncover rare but important
conditions that could impact health) but the population probably is
representative of those holding Class III medicals or better. It's
fair to say nothing surprising was uncovered, except to learn that
such a study had not been done long ago.

It reminds me of the old adage that we should drink 8 glasses of water
a day. That's something that has actually been debunked in a recent
study.




Thin air and even radiation exposure are insignificant in comparison to
the problems associated with engine oil seeping into the aircon. Some
airplanes are a lot worse than others, the older Rolls Royce powered
757s and TriStars being the worst with the Lycoming Powered Bae 146s not
far behind. Almost all have the problem to some extent or another.
All jet oils, particularly Mobil, contain huge amounts of nasties such
as organo-phosphates which affect the central nervous system and are
extremely hard to get rid of. Almost all airliners have this problem,
however, and every time you fly on one you get a certain amount of this
crap in you.
If you ever get on an airliner and you get a certain sour "smelly
socks" smell, that means there's an unusually high concentration and
that the engine seals arent doing their job. If you get enough in your
system during a flight, you'll probably have runny eyes and irritation
in your throat and sinuses. If you get a high enough dose in one flight,
you'll also have a nice tingly headache right at the top of your skull.
A major dose will bring about a night wither on, or kneeling in front of
the toilet...
It's a huge problem that the airlines and manufacturers are keeping as
quiet as possible about because of the huge liability exposure they
have. The next generation are eschewing bleed air driven pressurisation
and going to seperate supercharger systems. A lot of older turboprops
used this system as well as a small number of jets. The 787 will have
this system.



Bertie