2021
Volume 21, Number 1, pp. 18-22
Cabin air safety oversight in the airline industry
J.M. Lind
CPCU ARM (retired)
The risk management process requires the practitioner to find proximate and root causes of unsafe acts and conditions. The process recognizes no disciplinary boundaries. The contaminated cabin air issue is a profound example of such a quest. A prevention plan has been identified and is here presented in initial form as a summary. The issue originated with the US Government's zeal to increase public access to air transportation services by lowering ticket prices; a secondary objective was "small government" and tax relief. The resulting free market competition propagated worldwide as governments and operators elsewhere were forced to compete. Whether governments of the world and the international commercial air transportation industry will be willing to act as necessary to reduce or eliminate the unintended injuries and health problems suffered for decades by employees and passengers is as yet unknown. This summary delineates the background to the problem, its essential features, and how it might be consequentially addressed. The extent to which truly effective prevention methods must go is one or two steps further than this project would dare to suggest. However, the forthcoming full petition will hint at that extended journey.