Most aircraft flying today use bleed air to provide air conditioning to the aircraft. The problem with this design is that low levels of oil leak through the engine oil seals into the aircraft air in normal engine operation and when engine seals wear/fail, higher levels of oil mist enters the aircraft. Since the aircraft engine oil contains several percent of neurotoxic triaryl phosphates (TAPs) as anti-wear agent/ fire retardant. Exposure to aircraft engine oil causes serious health problems to aircrew and passengers. This situation presents the following problems: 1) how is exposure documented, 2) are safer TAPs available or designable 3) why are some individuals more resistant to the effects of TAP exposure than others? 4) is treatment possible for TAP exposure?
This paper is part of: "2017 International Aircraft Cabin Air Conference : Conference Proceedings". In: Journal of Health and Pollution, Vol. 9, No. 24 (Dec. 2019)