Are pilots aging prematurely?

There has been a lot of media coverage recently regarding the air quality in aircraft. There are the usual complaints and issues regarding recycled air and the jury is out as to whether this is or isn’t harmful to health. Very recently there has even been a court case which has compensated an air stewardess who was exposed to a 20 minute smoky air ‘bleed’ (which is the term for air contamination within the aircraft) and consequently she has been with ill health ever since.

The topic of air quality is quite controversial as there seems to be a groundswell of opinion and examples against the airlines for their lack of duty of care to their employees and customers by allowing regular toxic bleeds and general poor air quality and pollution within their aircraft. Stuck in between the fighting groups are the professionals at the helm of the aircraft – the pilots.

Whether or not the toxic air situation is proven to be harmful to all those exposed, pilots still face various health hazards. I think most would agree that recycled air isn’t the best quality air one could inhale and it could be compared to air conditioned air. These ‘types’ of air definitely dry out your skin, nose and throat and could be classified as an environmental disaster for your eyes. Regular exposure to either ‘type’ is a recipe for Dry Eye. If you know a pilot or a member of cabin crew there is a likelihood that they are already regularly grabbing for their (ineffective) artificial tears. (Author -See my other articles on Dry Eye).

Another health hazard for pilots is sun exposure on the flight deck which increases the risk of developing cataracts due to cosmic and UV radiation. A research team at the University of Iceland studied a group of men over the age of 50, 79 of which were pilots. 20% of the pilots were found to have cataracts. The results demonstrated that pilots were three times more likely to get cataracts compared to the rest of the group.

The kind of cataracts found in the pilots were 'nuclear cataracts’ a type of cataract characterized by the opacity (clouding) being in the central nucleus of the eye. The most common reason for nuclear cataracts to form is aging. This type of cataract could be seen as a natural eye aging disorder. Certainly in the study mentioned above the pilots seemed to be getting the cataracts younger than the non-pilots, so does this imply that the exposure to the sun and the environmental conditions faced by pilots is aging them prematurely? That is not for this author to conclude.

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