Image
Passengers on an airplane (Picture: Wikimedia Commons/Jacinta Quesada)
- Credit:
Passengers on an airplane (Picture: Wikimedia Commons/Jacinta Quesada)
Monday, 4 May 2015 - 14:29
Co-researcher denounces airplane poison gas claim
A researcher studying memory problems among airplane staff for the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, denies the claims made by fellow researcher that people traveling by plane are exposed to deadly nerve gases.
Doctor and pilot Michel Mulder told the Telegraaf this morning that plane passengers are exposed to the poisonous gas TCP that could lead to critical illnesses, or even death. “We examined Dutch pilots with symptoms of illness along with car drivers as a control group. Many pilots have demonstrable damage to the white matter of the brains. This causes, for example, MS and Alzheimer’s” he said.
But Liesbeth Reneman, co-researcher in the same study, calls Mulder's assumptions rash, Het Parool reports. "We have found that twelve examined cabin crew members have memory problems and that the white matter in their brains deviate, but we found no relationship to the number of flight hours and TCP. More research is necessary." she said to the newspaper.
According to Reneman, the differences in their opinions stem from the fact that Mulder is an "involved pilot, nearly a protester". Mulder believes that the aviation industry conceals the problem because it will cost billions to adapt the planes and fear of compensation claims.