Airlines "woefully" neglect the health of passengers and should provide them with information about health risks, including deep vein thrombosis (DVT), according to a British parliamentary report. Carriers should also consider giving passengers more legroom and less alcohol and should include health information in the pre-flight safety demonstration, the report, published yesterday, recommended.
After a 9 month inquiry into air travel and health, the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee called for urgent research into DVT, which can develop following prolonged periods of inactivity, such as longhaul flights. It said management changes must be implemented to educate staff and passengers about potential health risks and said there was a case for an independent air industry ombudsman to deal with complaints.
The chairman of the Lords Committee, Lord Winston, said "flying too cheaply is potentially too risky" but the risk of developing DVT solely because of air travel was small and the risk was "exceedingly small" for healthy people.
The report recommended that the term "economy class syndrome" about DVT should be dropped because it was not a condition that only affected economy class passengers. Travel-related DVT could develop in the young and old and in passengers in business and first class as well as economy. It was not confined to air travel and could develop during a long road journey.
The report also said women air passengers could be at a greater risk from DVT because of a possible connection between the condition and the use of oral contraception.
But peers warned there was a "paucity" of data about the link between DVT and flying and said more research must be carried out. They also urged the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to address the problem of passengers sitting in small seats for hours by implementing "an unambiguous set of definitions" for seat dimensions.
The report added: "Although any additional risk is likely to be small, it is not in doubt that risk factors of prolonged immobility and cramped seating are present in aircraft."
Recent reports about DVT cases have increased pressure on the air industry to provide more legroom for passengers and reduce the amount of alcohol consumed because dehydration and immobility on flights can increase the risk of developing DVT.
Hospitals near Heathrow receive at least two long-haul passengers suffering from blood clots each week and last month Ms Emma Christoffersen (28), from south Wales, died from a blood clot after a flight from Australia.
The chairwoman of the inquiry, Lady Wilcox, said peers were disturbed by the amount of anecdotal evidence about the health risks associated with air travel, but wanted to separate fact from fiction.
British Airways is undertaking research into DVT and will include information about health and air travel in future in-flight magazines.