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4 hours ago
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A study has revealed the concentrations of ultrafine particles breathed in by airline passengers.
A team of French researchers, including those from Université Paris Cité, built a pack of instruments that was flown alongside passengers from Paris Charles de Gaulle to European destinations. The machinery was placed on an empty seat in the front rows or in the galley.
Ultrafine particles are impossible to see and are often missed by conventional monitoring techniques, and therefore they are not covered by air pollution laws.
In 2021, the Dutch Health Council and the World Health Organization (WHO) highlighted the growing evidence that ultrafine particles are damaging our health. This includes 75 studies, mostly relating to lung inflammation, blood pressure and heart problems, along with risks to foetal growth. Technical differences between the studies, however, meant that the WHO was unable to set a standard. Since then a study of nearly 11 million people in the Netherlands found that exposure to ultrafine particles over several years was linked to early deaths includingof lung cancer.
There was some good news for air passengers. Ultrafine particle pollution in the cabin was very low when aircraft were at cruise altitude in relatively clean air. On the ground, however, it was a different matter. In the new study, the greatest concentrations of ultrafine particles were measured when passengers were boarding and when aircraft were taxiing. On average, the levels were more than twice those that the WHO defines as high. This polluted air was gradually flushed from the cabin once airborne but it increased again on approach to landing, possibly from high concentrations close to flight paths and downwind from airports. This pattern was also found at the destination airports.
It was a similar picture for black carbon, or soot particles. These were also greatest when the aircraft was at an airport.
This is a serious concern, given that globally, air passenger numbers are expected to exceed 5 billion this year for the first time. Aircraft remain relatively polluting, with little controls compared with road traffic and industry.
A separate review of health studies found a lack of research on the effect of air pollution breathed in by more than 2 million civilians and military personnel who work at airports worldwide.
Ultrafine particles from Charles de Gaulle are not only breathed by people at the airport but they also spread into the neighbouring communities. The concentration 1km from the airport was similar to that breathed a just few metres from Paris’s busy ring road. At London Gatwick, ultrafine particles about 500 metres from the perimeter fence were greater than those next to central London’s busiest roads.
Ultrafine particles from Charles de Gaulle could be detected more than 5km away. In London, ultrafine particles from Heathrow could be detected across west and central London, meaning they are being breathed by millions of people.
