UFO Info Week-End

The danger of toxic engine fumes leaking into the cabins of passenger aircraft will be investigated the Government said yesterday

The danger of toxic engine fumes leaking into the cabins of passenger aircraft will be investigated, the Government said yesterday. Michael Meacher, the Environment minister, revealed that an investigation had been ordered – as predicted by the Independent on Sunday last month. The danger of toxic engine fumes leaking into the cabins of passenger aircraft will be investigated, the Government said yesterday. Michael Meacher, the Environment minister, revealed that an investigation had been ordered – as predicted by the Independent on Sunday last month.
Paul Tyler, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall, had raised fears that passenger health was being affected by toxic vapours from engine lubricants escaping into the aircraft cockpit and cabin areas.More people die on planes due to heart attacks than crashes, he said. “Passengers are in an artificial environment where there may be 20 to 25 per cent less oxygen.”When you add this to the gathering evidence of neurological damage from leaks of lubricant fumes, it is obvious there is real cause for concern.”Some passengers became unconscious and others were unwell after an unidentified gas entered a Swedish-registered BAe 146 aircraft last November.

There have been other fume-related incidents involving this type of plane. A Lords sub-group of the science and technology committee is investigating the cabin environment and is to report before the end of the year.Mr Meacher said the Government had decided not to wait, but to commission its own study. In a letter to Mr Tyler, he said: “I recognise concern about cabin health issues has been growing recently.”Mr Tyler said: “Every passenger travelling by air this summer, let alone the pilots and cabin staff, will be reassured that, at last, the Government is taking this problem seriously.”An Australian Senate inquiry has taken evidence of leaks on 146s (sometimes used by the Royal family), Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s.The IoS reported in July that Chris Mullin, an Environment minister, had accepted the case for a full investigation into cabin environments, including efforts to reduce blood clots after long-haul flights. He told the Lords committee that a joint investigation was being done by the Department of Environment and the Department of Health.Officials at the Department of Environment told the IoS they had been asked to review existing research and commission fresh studies where needed. They found little research existed about the problems in pressurised cabins.. Tory leader William Hague is preparing for a fresh blow to the Conservatives’ election hopes with the publication of the long-awaited report into the BSE scandal. Tory leader William Hague is preparing for a fresh blow to the Conservatives’ election hopes with the publication of the long-awaited report into the BSE scandal.
Lord Phillips, who chaired the two-year long investigation, is planning to deliver his findings to the Government by the end of next month, say sources close to the inquiry.

And one member of Mr Hague’s shadow cabinet admitted that the report would be highly critical of the previous Tory government: “We are going to have to take it on the chin. There’s nothing else we can do,” he said.Conservative Party sources are calculating that the main criticism will be directed away from Mr Hague’s existing front-line team. “Angela Browning is the only one who is in the shadow cabinet now and she won’t take the blame,” said one Conservative source.Mr Hague, who saw his hopes of a Tory revival dashed in the opinion polls last week, was Welsh Secretary at the height of the BSE controversy and a member of John Major’s Cabinet.The Phillips investigation uncovered a trail of incompetency under the last Tory administration that allowed potentially dangerous offal to get into the food chain after it had been banned.Lord Phillips is expected to highlight the buck-passing which was evident in the public hearings as ex-ministers and officials sought to shift the blame to local authorities for allowing lax controls on slaughter houses.The line-up of top former Tory ministers who were questioned by the inquiry included former agriculture ministers, John MacGregor, William Waldegrave, John Gummer and Douglas Hogg.The handling of the inquiry has angered some former Tory ministers. “There was information on the inquiry website that was inaccurate that had to be completely rewritten. The way it was handled was appalling,” said one ex-minister.The Phillips inquiry has warned Commons officials that the report will be “the size of packing case” when it is published in October after the Commons returns from the summer break.Mr Hague, who is certain to face renewed speculation about his leadership unless the Tories narrow Labour’s lead soon, is about to launch his own ballot of the party to support key policy proposals including rejecting the euro, £5 per week on the state pension and cutting taxes on business. But there are fears of a low turn-out.The Tory leader this week will call for more protection for children in care and measures to end “political correctness” in adoption, creating a national register and removing county boundaries.John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, revealed Labour ministers are counting on the BSE inquiry to remind voters of the “total incompetence of Tory government”.Mr Prescott, who has been running the Government’s day-to-day operations while Mr Blair has been on holiday, ridiculed the Tory summer offensive.

Speaking to the Independent on Sunday, the Deputy Prime Minister said the failure of the Tories to press home their attacks and the embarrassment caused by Mr Hague’s claim to drink 14 pints of beer a day as a teenager will have unnerved the Conservatives.”Whoever organised the Tory summer campaign must have been drinking 14 pints a day I’d be happy to pay their drinks bill. The Tory offensive was based on fear and prejudice over asylum seekers, paedophiles and now travellers but it has been a total flop,” said Mr Prescott.He said: “Our people got a few jolts about how the Tories play all these fear and prejudice issues. It must be the first example of the failure of negative campaigning in Britain.”I think now our people are fired up for the election. A lot of people were nervous and apprehensive about the Tory attacks. But it was the best thing they could have done to us.”Gordon Brown has delivered on public spending. Our supporters just want to knock the hell out of the Tories.”.