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"Disinsection" or How Our Govts Are Spraying Airline Passengers With Insecticides

Messages
59
Location
Hawaii
This sounded like a conspiracy theory in the blog where I first saw it...

That was until I read on the official DoT website the actual policy and this made up word to obfuscate what they're actually doing to people without our consent:
hot-boxing passengers with aerosol INSECTICIDES https://www.transportation.gov/office-policy/aviation-policy/aircraft-disinsection-requirements

Shouldn't someone be looking into how this affects our nervous systems when, for (previous) world travelers like me (and Whitney Dafoe), we've been exposed to these toxins over and over and over again without our knowledge or consent?!

I can barely tolerate a 35 minute flight to Oahu to see ordinary specialists that aren't available on Kauai (and I am bedbound for weeks afterward), let alone fly to the mainland to see family or even consider traveling to explore/experience like I used to...

This is truly terrifying, especially considering how much the medical establishment still doesn't understand about our nervous systems... Really W.H.O.?!?
 

Paralee

Senior Member
Messages
571
Location
USA
This is more of the same, I guess, I worry about my little corporate daughter flying almost every week. One more thing to think about.

Thanks for posting this, I need to warn her.
 

Snowdrop

Rebel without a biscuit
Messages
2,933
I don't think the pesticide spray is for all trips. I know Australia has insisted on it to prevent stuff from coming into country for years. There seems to be a list of countries which require that the plane is sprayed or the country of origin wants the plane sprayed.

I find it hard to believe there are no consequences.

What about pregnant women; babies? I understand the rationale--it's a sticky issue.
But I would expect repeated exposure could present problems.
 

Sean

Senior Member
Messages
7,378
Not exactly new news. Has been going on for at least 45 years. Happened on my first overseas trip when I was 10.

Whether it is a health risk or not is another issue.
 
Messages
59
Location
Hawaii
They list the countries with specific requirements in the link I posted (many of which I've traveled to) but that doesn't mean (esp with this Zika scare) other companies/routes aren't doing it...

If you notice, the W.H.O. report citing that it's "safe" is from the mid-90s!! (myriad implications with just that one little fact)

Only way to find out for sure where and for how long it's been going on is to call the numbers provided, but I certainly don't have the energy nor stamina for that anymore! :(
 
Messages
59
Location
Hawaii
Not exactly new news. Has been going on for at least 45 years. Happened on my first overseas trip when I was 10.

Whether it is a health risk or not is another issue.

The point isn't that it's "news" in the traditional sense but that it's news to most people who have never known they were being exposed to this for who knows how long.

Even just today, with links provided to the US gov website clearly stating this "Disinsection" policy, people are arguing online that this is just another kooky conspiracy theory by chem trails nuts...
 

taniaaust1

Senior Member
Messages
13,054
Location
Sth Australia
I don't think the pesticide spray is for all trips. I know Australia has insisted on it to prevent stuff from coming into country for years. There seems to be a list of countries which require that the plane is sprayed or the country of origin wants the plane sprayed.

I find it hard to believe there are no consequences.

What about pregnant women; babies? I understand the rationale--it's a sticky issue.
But I would expect repeated exposure could present problems.

My uncle (lives in Australia) used to be a very high up bank manager who used to as part of his work be flying overseas all the time before he developed systemic mastocytosis which forced him to leave his job. He could of had his first mastocystosis emergency from a plane trip (it took drs 10 years and many life threatening reactions before he was diagnosed).

I'd always wondered if all his plane trips overseas could of tipped him off into the health issues.
.....

ME/CFS has been found not just to be more common in teachers and those in the health professions but also more common in plane pilots too.
 
Messages
59
Location
Hawaii
I think it would be interesting to study how many of us were frequent flyers (esp overseas) in our previously healthy lives... Or if the onset followed a flight. Personally, mine was gradual onset but I have a documented and definite pattern of getting fevers and having my condition get progressively worse after flying to/from somewhere overseas.
India
Guatemala
DC
Greece
Cook Islands
New Zealand...

Whether the cumulative effect of being doused in neurotoxins with no fresh air circulating for hours on end CAUSED my current, multitudinous neurological problems or whether my genetics made me more sensitive to the chemicals every time I flew somewhere (or some combo of both) who knows?

I'd really like someone to investigate this line of inquiry though....
 
Messages
59
Location
Hawaii
I've been thinking about this too, as I was a very frequent flyer before I got sick. I hadn't heard about disinsection, but there is lots of information about so called toxic cabin air - the exhaust fumes (amongst other things) are partially sucked into the cabin while flying, and some think this might create a toxic load in frequent flyers.
http://www.toxiccabinair.com/

Yeah, I knew about that part of the equation, but to find out they are INTENTIONALLY FUMIGATING US without our knowledge or consent (or the ability to even crack open a window while we're literally trapped for hours at a time), potentially for decades is just... I don't even have the word for it. Diabolical?!?
 

justy

Donate Advocate Demonstrate
Messages
5,524
Location
U.K
Ive been reading about this recently on the Mast cell forums. I have ,MCAS and don't like flying anyway due to fear of flying, but couldn't even consider now I have that info. The mast cell groups tell people to take something to put over their heads when being sprayed (on entering the plane?) then to go to the loo and change into a new set of clothes and to put something on the seat so you don't sit on it. They've been doing this in and out fo NZ and Oz for years - I used to live in NZ and sat on seats impregnated with chemicals while pregnant without even knowing! Awful.
 
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Snowdrop

Rebel without a biscuit
Messages
2,933
I just wanted to add that I think you can have more than one thing going on. You could have neurological issues from pesticide and have ME. Many of us have a small cluster of things that can be diagnosed as separate illnesses and it may be hard to tease out at times. Pesticide is also in other places and is part of a bigger toxic environment as mentioned.

I think we're a long way from understanding these effects right down to the soap and shampoo we (might) use.
 
Messages
59
Location
Hawaii
I just wanted to add that I think you can have more than one thing going on. You could have neurological issues from pesticide and have ME. Many of us have a small cluster of things that can be diagnosed as separate illnesses and it may be hard to tease out at times. Pesticide is also in other places and is part of a bigger toxic environment as mentioned.

I think we're a long way from understanding these effects right down to the soap and shampoo we (might) use.

Definitely. I also have Endometriosis, among other things, which is another under-researched, misunderstood condition that likely has immunological implications but the medical establishment won't acknowledge that.

To be clear, I'm not implying that this is THE cause, just that with such a huge and blatant assault on our immune and nervous systems - over and over - it's something that should be thoroughly studied. Especially in relation to people with "mystery" neuro-immune disorders that are just growing in number....
 

Effi

Senior Member
Messages
1,496
Location
Europe
To be clear, I'm not implying that this is THE cause, just that with such a huge and blatant assault on our immune and nervous systems - over and over - it's something that should be thoroughly studied.
I'm thinking along the same lines. But I'm afraid it's a Pandora's box no one is willing to open...
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
Shouldn't someone be looking into how this affects our nervous systems when, for (previous) world travelers like me (and Whitney Dafoe), we've been exposed to these toxins over and over and over again without our knowledge or consent?!

Significant exposure to organophosphate pesticides has been shown to increase the risk of getting ME/CFS by a factor of 4: in Scotland, studies showed that farmers who applied "sheep dip" (an organophosphate-based or pyrethroid-based preparation which kills external parasites like mites, ticks and lice on the sheep), had 4 times the national average rate of ME/CFS.

Furthermore, farmers who used organophosphate-based sheep dip were found to be 10,000 times more likely to suffer from mental health disorders, so organophosphates seem particularity deleterious to mental health (ref: 1).

See also: Women who use pesticides have double the risk of autoimmune diseases lupus and rheumatoid arthritis


However, in order to examine the possible ill effects of disinsection in aircraft, you would first have to find some figures indicating the amount and type of pesticide used. Dosage is important. For example, for most people, the major route of exposure to pesticides is not via the pesticide residues in their food (which are generally negligible), but via the spraying of pesticides (by themselves or their neighbors) in the garden; or by municipal authorities spraying pesticides in the local area.

So you'd have to get some figures on the estimated dosage of pesticide a passenger receives. Looking at your weblink, there are also different methods of disinsection:
(1) spray the aircraft cabin with an aerosolized insecticide while passengers are on board or

(2) or spray or treat the aircraft's interior surfaces with a residual insecticide (residual method) while passengers are not on board.


According to this study, the amount of pesticide you receive daily from aircraft disinsection ranges from 0.15 μg to 1.4 μg per kg of body weight (depending on the mode of application). So an 80 kg person would receive 12 μg to 112 μg of pesticides per day.

So the amount of pesticide you are exposed to during a flight is not that much more than the amount of pesticide residue that you find in fruit, vegetables, and cereal grains, which is in the order of 10 μg of pesticide per kg of foodstuff. Ref: 1

I believe pyrethroid pesticides are used for aircraft disinsection, which are not as toxic as organophosphates.

In summary: as far as I can see, aircraft disinsection does not look like it is much of an issue.


In any case, it would be the cabin crew who would have a much larger exposure than passengers, as these staff are flying all the time.

Disinsection is not to be confused with aerotoxic syndrome, which is where the cabin crew are exposed to pesticides from the aircraft's fuel (pesticides are added to aviation fuel), from fume events. This appears to be more of a cause for concern.
 
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Messages
59
Location
Hawaii
@Hip yes, we'd need to find out what Insecticides they're actually using, etc (why I said someone needs to investigate this) because at this point we have no idea.

There are actually YouTube videos of flight attendants walking through the cabin spraying an aerosol can while passengers are on board. My understanding is they also do this in the very short time between disembarking and boarding passengers.

And I would think that inhaling recycled air laden with pesticides for hours on end would be quite different than breathing it outside while it's being applied. So that's another variable that would need to be studied rather than just the typical manner of exposure...
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
@KauaiWahine
I believe pyrethroid pesticides are used for aircraft disinsection, which are not as toxic as organophosphates.

The study I cited looked at exposure in aircraft, so presumably takes into account factors such as recirculating air.
 
Messages
59
Location
Hawaii
Not even close. Unless you are a cat.
@Sean
Aside from the fact that people travel all the time on airplanes with their beloved cats and probably don't know this(!) there apparently have been more recent studies showing the cumulative effects of exposure aren't so benign for humans:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25630971

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0300483X01005698?via=ihub

"Increased sensitivity occurs following repeated exposure to cyanide, which is found in pyrethroids like beta-cyfluthrin (Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Awareness, J. Edward Hill, MD, President & Executive Committee Member, AMA)."