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Impact of Cabin Ozone Concentrations on Passenger Reported Symptoms in Commercial Aircraft

Due to elevated ozone concentrations at high altitudes, the adverse effect of ozone on air quality, human perception and health may be more pronounced in aircraft cabins. The association between ozone and passenger-reported symptoms has not been investigated under real conditions since smoking was b...

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Autores principales: Bekö, Gabriel, Allen, Joseph G., Weschler, Charles J., Vallarino, Jose, Spengler, John D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4444275/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26011001
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0128454
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author Bekö, Gabriel
Allen, Joseph G.
Weschler, Charles J.
Vallarino, Jose
Spengler, John D.
author_facet Bekö, Gabriel
Allen, Joseph G.
Weschler, Charles J.
Vallarino, Jose
Spengler, John D.
author_sort Bekö, Gabriel
collection PubMed
description Due to elevated ozone concentrations at high altitudes, the adverse effect of ozone on air quality, human perception and health may be more pronounced in aircraft cabins. The association between ozone and passenger-reported symptoms has not been investigated under real conditions since smoking was banned on aircraft and ozone converters became more common. Indoor environmental parameters were measured at cruising altitude on 83 US domestic and international flights. Passengers completed a questionnaire about symptoms and satisfaction with the indoor air quality. Average ozone concentrations were relatively low (median: 9.5 ppb). On thirteen flights (16%) ozone levels exceeded 60 ppb, while the highest peak level reached 256 ppb for a single flight. The most commonly reported symptoms were dry mouth or lips (26%), dry eyes (22.1%) and nasal stuffiness (18.9%). 46% of passengers reported at least one symptom related to the eyes or mouth. A third of the passengers reported at least one upper respiratory symptom. Using multivariate logistic (individual symptoms) and linear (aggregated continuous symptom variables) regression, ozone was consistently associated with symptoms related to the eyes and certain upper respiratory endpoints. A concentration-response relationship was observed for nasal stuffiness and eye and upper respiratory symptom indicators. Average ozone levels, as opposed to peak concentrations, exhibited slightly weaker associations. Medium and long duration flights were significantly associated with more symptoms compared to short flights. The relationship between ultrafine particles and ozone on flights without meal service was indicative of ozone-initiated chemistry.
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spelling pubmed-44442752015-06-16 Impact of Cabin Ozone Concentrations on Passenger Reported Symptoms in Commercial Aircraft Bekö, Gabriel Allen, Joseph G. Weschler, Charles J. Vallarino, Jose Spengler, John D. PLoS One Research Article Due to elevated ozone concentrations at high altitudes, the adverse effect of ozone on air quality, human perception and health may be more pronounced in aircraft cabins. The association between ozone and passenger-reported symptoms has not been investigated under real conditions since smoking was banned on aircraft and ozone converters became more common. Indoor environmental parameters were measured at cruising altitude on 83 US domestic and international flights. Passengers completed a questionnaire about symptoms and satisfaction with the indoor air quality. Average ozone concentrations were relatively low (median: 9.5 ppb). On thirteen flights (16%) ozone levels exceeded 60 ppb, while the highest peak level reached 256 ppb for a single flight. The most commonly reported symptoms were dry mouth or lips (26%), dry eyes (22.1%) and nasal stuffiness (18.9%). 46% of passengers reported at least one symptom related to the eyes or mouth. A third of the passengers reported at least one upper respiratory symptom. Using multivariate logistic (individual symptoms) and linear (aggregated continuous symptom variables) regression, ozone was consistently associated with symptoms related to the eyes and certain upper respiratory endpoints. A concentration-response relationship was observed for nasal stuffiness and eye and upper respiratory symptom indicators. Average ozone levels, as opposed to peak concentrations, exhibited slightly weaker associations. Medium and long duration flights were significantly associated with more symptoms compared to short flights. The relationship between ultrafine particles and ozone on flights without meal service was indicative of ozone-initiated chemistry. Public Library of Science 2015-05-26 /pmc/articles/PMC4444275/ /pubmed/26011001 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0128454 Text en © 2015 Bekö et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Bekö, Gabriel
Allen, Joseph G.
Weschler, Charles J.
Vallarino, Jose
Spengler, John D.
Impact of Cabin Ozone Concentrations on Passenger Reported Symptoms in Commercial Aircraft
title Impact of Cabin Ozone Concentrations on Passenger Reported Symptoms in Commercial Aircraft
title_full Impact of Cabin Ozone Concentrations on Passenger Reported Symptoms in Commercial Aircraft
title_fullStr Impact of Cabin Ozone Concentrations on Passenger Reported Symptoms in Commercial Aircraft
title_full_unstemmed Impact of Cabin Ozone Concentrations on Passenger Reported Symptoms in Commercial Aircraft
title_short Impact of Cabin Ozone Concentrations on Passenger Reported Symptoms in Commercial Aircraft
title_sort impact of cabin ozone concentrations on passenger reported symptoms in commercial aircraft
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4444275/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26011001
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0128454
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