17/02/2014 Inside Out North West

Welcome to Inside Out North West with me, Dianne Oxberry. Tonight, a

special investigation into why some pilots in our region believe the

planes they are flying are making them ill and why they say that is

unsafe for passengers. I couldn't remember if I had been

cleared to land. My skills were going downhill to the point where I

was becoming dangerous. The whole point of an aeroplane is you cannot

open the window. You are in an enclosed environment. And why an

Englishman's home is his castle This man from Birkenhead is refusing

to move even though all of his neighbours' houses have been pulled

down. My Mam brought ten of us up in here and I am the last one. I am

staying here. Pilots in our region believe they

are being slowly poisoned by their aircraft. Jacey Normand investigates

whether at 30,000 feet there is something in the air.

Flying has become part of our everyday lives and you would expect

to arrive at your destination safe and well. But for some pilots and

passengers it doesn't always work out that way. I was the captain of a

large jet airliner and I flew jets for 15 years. I never got phased by

anything. But now I couldn't do it. I was flying long haul for 13 years.

It is unthinkable to get on a flight well in the morning and get off it

long life sick in the afternoon Most of the airlines are bantered be

in denial because their profits depend on not acknowledging what is

going on. I think if you would ask an airline passenger how much gas

you would like in the cabin on your flight today, all of them would say

nothing. Back in 2012, a British pilot lay sick and dying in a

hospital bed in Amsterdam. His name was Richard Westgate. He was a jet

pilot, he was very fit. He was only 42 years of age. Single man. He

could not understand what was wrong with him. Scottish solicitor Frank

Cannon was contacted by Richard for help as he felt there was no one

else to turn to. His GP and his specialists were never able to reach

a diagnosis whatsoever. He rapidly came of the few that decontamination

of the cabin air was killing him. Richard's belief he was being

poisoned came from the way the air is supplied in the cabin. Most

modern aircraft are designed so the air come through the engines. It is

called lead air and mixed inside the aircraft with recycling `` recycled

air. The engines contain liquid It can mean any leaking quickly turn

into a mist that circulates throughout the plane and is inhaled

by people on board. These components can include lethal toxins such as

TCP, a organophosphates. It is these substances that Richards believed

had made him ill. I detected that Richard was on a mission in the last

couple of months to expose the whole thing. He got angrier and angrier as

time went by. That upset him a lot. He could not understand why he was

in the condition he was in. He was on a mission to establish that

decontamination of the cabin air had to be stopped. He was very keen to

prove that he should expose the whole thing. Stories from pilots and

cabin crew of polluted air have been around for a while and they have

developed a name, aerotoxic syndrome. I tracked down to ex`pilot

in our region who believe they were made ill by the air they breathe

white flying jet aircraft. They wished to remain anonymous. I wasn't

quite as sharp as I had been. You start to forget things in your daily

life, you become forgetful. Not just where your car keys are. I got worse

and worse and my family started to notice. I went to the doctor and

said, I think I am going mad. I had a poor immune system and fatigue. I

could not sit down without falling asleep. I was unable to complete a

short flight without falling asleep. These symptoms were occurring when

they were still flying aeroplanes which could have had serious

consequences for passengers and crew. My local ablative skill was

getting worse. `` my cognitive skill. I could not remember if I had

been cleared to land. I was becoming dangerous. I was on the approach

somewhere when it gets busy sometimes you have to train runways

and reprogram the computer. It is an easy process. It is like putting on

your windscreen wipers but I could not read what was on the screen It

was getting crushed in the approach and we had to swap over so he could

programme the computer and land the aeroplane. It has been noticeable to

me over the last few years the disproportionate number of my

patients who are pilots or cabin crew and who have become ill as a

result of flying. Dr Jenny Goodman practices nutritional and

environmental medicine in London. She has tested over 25 pilots to

seek what is in their system. There is a whole array of them and they

are the products of burnt engine fuel and engine oil. Some of them

are gone panel force the and these are neurotoxic. `` these are

organophosphates. They make the pole field fatigue and can't think

straight. The symptoms will manifest in the digestive system, the mental

functioning in the respiratory system and the nervous system. Every

system of the body. That very multiplicity is what makes the

conventional medical profession suspicious. None of these

allegations are new to the Department of Transport. In 200 the

commission Cranfield University to test the quality of air in 100

flights and they reported their findings back in 2011. With regard

to organophosphates or TCP, they found that:

why are so many pilots across the world still blaming the air the

leave on the aircraft? `` they breathe on the aircraft? I wanted to

know why the industry doesn't accept that it is a problem. I spoke to the

chairman of the committee that reviewed the Cranfield study. It is

clear that episodes occur in which the air in aircraft becomes

contaminated by components and engine oil or combustion products

and this can happen occasionally. The levels that occur for the vast

majority of the time and extremely low. They are well below those at

which any adverse effect would be expected to occur. All chemicals can

be harmful to people if you are sufficiently exposed and one of the

fundamental principles of toxicology is the toxic effect depends on the

dose. If you take alcohol, for example, that is a world of

difference between eating in the queue at chocolate and consuming a

bottle of whiskey in one go. They would have to be hundreds of

thousands of times higher than occur in normal operation of the aircraft

in order to come close to the level at which you might expect adverse

effects. If the quantity of the TCP in an aircraft is the desert that

the determining factor, and the government has set a safe level we

wanted to save ourselves what levels of TCP is present in flights from

the UK. We took to European flight and used air samplers to test the

quality of the air. Once the flights were completed we said the samples

to be tested in Canada. One man who says it is not the size of the dose

that is the issue but the body s ability to do detox if a firm is Dr

Michel Mulder, a former pilot. He has been studying the effects of

fume inhalation on flights and has seen over 150 pilots and say some of

them will always have problems getting organophosphates out of

their system. It is a tumour to have effect of a low`dose. `` cumulative.

Why can some people get rid of the toxins? It is biochemistry. It

depends on the type of enzymes you have in the liver to detoxify these

components. Some people are not able to be toxic fight and metabolise

alcohol and they will develop problems with the liver. This

applies also to organophosphates. We designed a DNA test with two

laboratories in Germany and Luxembourg. We have seen 70 people

who have done the test. There is a small category we call the Paula

metabolise is. They will develop problems in about three to four

years after regular exposure to low level organophosphates that you find

in nearly every normal flight. If Doctor Michelle Mulder is right and

there are some people who are poor work detoxify is, they will be made

ill by one of the industries greater issues, eight fume event. There are

two types of exposure they get. That is the low`grade chronic exposure

over many years that frequent flyers also get. Tiny amounts of chemicals

but affecting these people is because they are sensitive to them.

Then there are the fume incidents. Eight fume event is something the

industry recognising as a problem. It happens when the seals in the

engine failed resulting in fumes or smoke entering the cabin. According

to government statistics, a fume event only happen in one in every

2000 flights but was are the effects of them? The committee for toxicity

found that although the pilots were ill be explained a possible reason

was the expected to be ill after having smoke in the cabin, they call

this the new Siebel effect. The levels that occur for the vast

majority of the time and extremely low. They are well below those at

which any adverse effects would be expected to occur. The question now

is how much higher might concentrations go to ring pollution

episodes `` new ring pollution episodes? The pollution episodes are

rather brief and we can say that if they were going to cause adverse

toxic effects increase in exposures would have to be quite enormous

during those periods. It is very difficult to capture an event when

the pollution is occurring because they are infrequent stop monitoring

is not easy. The whole point is about an aeroplane is you cannot

open the window. You are in pain in closed environment. Many of my

patients describe a serious fume incidents on a plane happened at the

beginning of a long haul flight and the flight then continued for

another 12 hours. Many passengers become ill, many crew become ill but

you can't get out. If you do that for a living and you do it year in,

year out, unless you have got very least from systems you will become

ill. Whilst Dr Goodman and Dr Mulder

insist there is evidence of toxic exposure, the medical establishment

still refused their claims. I don't see evidence of a specific unique,

unusual pattern that occurs in relation to the exposure. Nor am I

confident it is due to a toxic effect that might be a toxic effect,

but it might be a psychological one. I am clear that illness, real

illness is occurring, real disability and that it is related to

the exposures but it is not a specific, unique syndrome of signs

and it may not be a toxic event ??All these new syndromes, each of

which is initially received by the establishment with the phrase, it

does not exist, and then ten years later it exists but it is only

psychological. Then ten years after that, it exists but we do not know

what to do about it. This syndrome is just one example of the chemicals

that we are surrounded by making people ill. Doubting is very easy

and you see this in the tobacco lobby when people start to say, it

causes lung cancer. The first thing, the first line of defence, is doubt.

Our test results came back from the lab in Canada and TCP was found to

be present on our aircraft. The levels of TCP in the air are low and

consistent with findings in similar studies. We asked the Department for

Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority to comment on the claims

made in this film. They declined an interview.

We asked the CAA for an interview but they also declined. The Civil

Aviation Authority regulates all aspects of flying in the UK and echo

the Department for Transport statement.

Some aircraft manufacturers have made changes. In 2011, Boeing's 787

Dreamliner had its first commercial flight. It is the first passenger

jet in 50 years to bring air into the aircraft without going through

the engines. Boeing told us the primary reasons the 787 does not use

an engine error system are fuel savings and environmental

performance and they do not have plans to modify existing aeroplanes.

The Dreamliner may be a breath of fresh air for the airline industry

but sceptics will see this as a response to the increasing number of

fume events. For people who believe they have been affected by toxic

fumes, they will be turning their attention to the courts, with Frank

Cannon intending to start legal proceedings against some airlines

over the death of Richard Westgate. A cause of death is yet to be

established. Frank has had Richard's tissue samples analysed and believes

there is enough proof to reopen an inquest into his death. As a lawyer,

I gather the evidence from various people and there are tests that have

been done that demonstrate that organophosphate is present in the

air. The airlines and the manufacturers know that the

contamination is there and they have to do something about it. Until

then, pilots who believe they have symptoms are having to give up the

career they love. I have been off work for a few years. My memory is

still pretty awful. It is like living in a bubble. You would not

recognise me from the person I was before. I was outgoing, adventurous,

nothing fazed me. Pilots' concern is that there are other pilots flying

with this condition. I have had two colleagues phone me and ask about

symptoms. They think they have got the same. They love flying but they

do not want to lose their jobs. Whatever the outcome, it is clear

from the pilots we have spoken to that the airline industry has to do

more to find out why they have had to give up the career they love so

much. They say an Englishman's home is his

castle. For one Birkenhead man that has proved to be the case as all of

his neighbours' houses have gradually been pulled down. Charlie

Wright, a former boilermaker and shop steward, has been busy keeping

his home while all about him have been moving theirs.

I have lived here 62 years. I was born in this house. My mam got it

just after the war. My mam brought ten of us up in here and I am the

last one. I am staying here. This was one of the best estates ever. We

had everything and now we have nothing. Not a thing. Not even

neighbours. Once Charlie had hundreds of neighbours. Now he owns

the last house standing, book`ended by the remains of two partially

demolished buildings. Charlie's house is isolated and alone, but not

long ago it was surrounded by 6 0 council properties, making up what

were known as Birkenhead 's River Streets. There was Tees, Avon, Tyne,

Solway, Tweed and Ribble. Post`war homes for thousands of workers who

sustained the economy of the manufacturing and ship building

town. The Queen Mother was at Birkenhead to launch the biggest

liner built in Britain since the Queen Elizabeth which she herself

named 21 years ago. She christened it Windsor Castle. 50,000 onlookers

cheered it down the slipway. The steel mill went. Champion Spark

Plugs went, the flour mills went, Mobil Oil went, the iron ore at the

Penny Bridge, all gone. Where I am now, this is where we used to play

as kids and this part here, this here used to be the wicket when we

used to play cricket. If the ball went over here we were out. It was a

working`class community where local industry once employed 14,000

people. By the mid`80s, only 13 0 had jobs and the north end of

Birkenhead began a slide towards poverty. Charlie, a boiler man by

trade, was made redundant and his days as a shop steward were over.

Even so, his community still provided a sense of place for

families. The kids grew up, got married, got a house on the estate.

So their kids could go and see their gran. That is how it was. I had

three uncles and aunties, one in Brenwick Street, my uncle Freddie

round the corner. My uncle round the back. All of the family was brought

up on this estate. I am the last one. The only thing you ever see him

doing is feeding the foxes, washing his car, making sure his flag is at

high mast and doing his garden. Or coming over and saying, can you

tighten this up? That is what you are there for. If something breaks

down with my car, I go over to you. That is what neighbours are for We

would have been the two last standing at the Alamo. You'd have

been Jim Bowie. He has his own principles, hasn't he? It's like

everything. If I had the money he has, I would be gone. Get lost. You

may not have had a lot, but it was a community, it was decent housing.

From terraced to semidetached and they are going to say it is in a

deprived area. It is in dockland. You would not say that if it was

down in London. Here we are on the second phase of the first block of

houses that they are knocking down. There is the crane getting rid of

all the bricks and that. Over the last dozen years, the council houses

have been demolished. Charlie had bought his house in the early 8 s

and the council once offered to buy it but he would not sell. The plan

was to make room for new factories but the jobs and investment did not

materialise. Without them his house could never be subject to compulsory

purchase. That house over there That will be the next one to get

knocked down. Those houses all the way down there. A dumping ground for

toys. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. The waste ground left by the

demolition may yet have a future. A plan to transform the derelict

Birkenhead waterfront. The scheme, known as Wirral Waters, is the UK's

largest regeneration project and has been recently approved by the

government. Charlie could be getting new neighbours at last. Bottles

everywhere. Terrible. Peel Holdings is planning to match what is a

project on both banks of the River Mersey. Over 30 years they will

invest billions of pounds and create thousands of jobs. Everyone on this

estate had jobs. We all had jobs years ago. There is not even a job

to get now. What can you do? I think this Peel Holdings if it takes off

it is going to be like when Birkenhead was livened up from the

ashes years ago. Peel has joined up with a Chinese company to build a

huge international trade centre on the Wirral waterfront. Spread over

2.5 million square feet it will be a giant shop front for Asian companies

selling goods into Europe. The new site sits just across the road from

Charlie's house. The land is not part of Peel's plans but one day it

seems inevitable someone will want to develop it. The only real

question then would be the price. It would have to be millions and

millions and millions. I would give everyone on this estate a couple of

thousand pounds each. Give everyone something. You can sit here, have a

cup of tea. From upstairs I can look over to Liverpool and see the

cathedral, the big wheel, see the ships, see cars passing. What more

do I want? We were taught in school an Englishman's home is his castle.

And a castle flies the flag. So I thought, I will have one at the back

and one at the front and anyone comes near this house and it is

world war three. No matter who it is. I do not care who they are. They

will not come near this house while those flags are there. I would not

like them to say, come on, you are getting out of here. No, this is my

castle. It is one way to get a bit of peace

and quiet. That is it for this week but do not forget you can catch us

again on iPlayer and we are back again next Monday. Until then,

goodbye. Next week, we reveal the

conservation work helping wild birds at the Leighton Moss nature reserve

in Lancashire. To see it through your own scope is amazing.

Hello, I'm Sam Naz with your 90 second update.

An independent Scotland can keep the pound. That's the message from First

Minister Alex Salmond who insists it's better for UK business. He

accused Westminster parties of bullying for ruling out a shared

currency. Full story at Ten. Ten million pounds is being promised

by the PM to help small business hit by recent storms. Severe flood

warnings on the Thames have been downgraded, but experts say water

levels could rise again. A co-pilot from Ethiopian Airlines

has hijacked his own plane. He took control when the other pilot went to

the toilet. He asked for asylum after landing in Switzerland.

He's set to become Italy's youngest-ever prime minister.

39-year-old Matteo Renzi is promising many reforms. He's mayor

of Florence - but has never been an MP.

We've got tablets, smartphones and laptops. But nine-out-of-ten of us

still prefer the