A product liability lawsuit currently pending against Boeing alleges that potential toxic fumes are entering and circulating in the passenger cabin of commercial transports.

Terry Williams, a former American Airlines flight attendant, says she has suffered chronic migraines, balance and vision problems, tremors in her left arm, tingles in her feet, post traumatic stress disorder, speech impairment and a loss of childhood memories, ever since April 11, 2007, when a misty cloud of smoke circulated within the cabin of the MD-82 aircraft where she was working.

She is suing Boeing, which acquired McDonnell Douglas, the maker of the MD-80, for damages caused by toxins that were allegedly allowed to enter the air on the flight unfiltered.

Within weeks of the flight, she made repeated visits to emergency rooms before a neurologist told her she'd been exposed to toxic substances.

"I feel like I can't play with my children because the pain is so bad that I'm often left in tears," she said. "I was healthy prior to the event, and now I have continuous, debilitating problems,” she told KOMO, a Seattle, Washington, radio station.

But Boeing doesn't think there is a problem. "We believe that the air in airplane cabins is safe," a Boeing spokesman told KOMO.

A group of flight attendants filed a similar lawsuit against Boeing seven years ago, claiming toxic air was being drawn into the cabins. A jury decided the company was not liable for their health problems.

According to the complaint, Williams was working in the first-class section of American Airlines Flight 843 flying from Memphis International to Dallas Fort Worth International when she was exposed to “contaminated bleed air” that entered the passenger cabin through the air delivery system during taxi to the gate.

“Bleed air is the outside air fraction of the cabin supply air that is first compressed in the aircraft engines or Auxiliary Power Unit and which, as a result of the product defect… is prone to contamination with high-temperature engine oil and hydraulic fluid and their byproducts under normal operating conditions,” the lawsuit stated.

On April 19, she reported to work, but was unable to perform her duties as a flight attendant. She went to a hospital emergency room for treatment. She has been unable to return to work as a result of her illness and symptoms, her lawyers stated.

The lawsuit said Boeing has not “retrofitted their aircraft with either sensors or air filtration systems designed to detect or eliminate and or minimize vaporized and or pyrolized engine oil and or hydraulic fluid and its byproducts and or other toxic substances under normal operations.”

Williams seeks compensation for damages that include serious physical and mental injuries, past and future medical expenses, loss of employment benefits, past and future wage loss, past and future pain and suffering and past and future emotional distress.

Williams, who lives outside Seattle and has two pre-school age boys, is pursuing the lawsuit so others don’t suffer.

"I'm often unable to play with my children. I feel like I'm depriving my kids of a mom and my husband of a wife," she said, her voice cracking. "I walked off that plane and have never been the same. ... If I can educate anyone and help raise public awareness to stop this from happening, hopefully changes can be made to keep people healthy,” she told CNN.

Initially, airline passengers breathed in air supplied directly from the atmosphere using compressors. But this was an expensive proposition, so in the 1960s a system was developed to draw the “bleed” air from the engines.

Air is drawn out of the compression section of the engine and cooled. It then enters the cabin, where it mixes with re-circulated air that has passed through filters designed to remove bacteria and viruses. These air filters do not remove any fumes or vapors from the engine. So if engine oil or hydraulic fuel leaks, because of poorly designed or faulty seals, or even over-filled tanks, toxic chemicals can contaminate the air supply.

The bleed air can be laced with a chemical, tricresylphosphate (TCP), an organophosphate, or other toxic mixtures of chemicals that have been linked to serious respiratory problems, memory loss, neurological illnesses and even brain damage. According to the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), “the air you breathe in the aircraft cabin is supplied from the engines or auxiliary power unit (APU) and sometimes it gets contaminated with engine oils or hydraulic fluids that get heated to very high temperatures, often appearing as a smelly haze or smoke. That haze/smoke that enters the cabin air is a toxic soup and can contain carbon monoxide gas as well as chemicals that can damage your nervous system called tricresylphosphates. Exposure to TCPs can initially cause stomach ache and muscle weakness, followed by delayed memory loss, tremors, confusion, and many other symptoms,” AFA added.

The union, which has closely monitored the health issue, said University of Washington Professor Clem Furlong is in the final stages of developing a blood test that will enable crew and passengers to determine if they were exposed to TCPs on a flight.

In an advisory to its members, AFA said “if you think you have been exposed, it is important to get your blood sent to his lab as soon as possible because that information will assist your doctor if you need medical help post-exposure and will benefit your workers' compensation case. “

Candace K. Kolander, AFA’s coordinator for air safety, health and security, testified recently that “the issue of poor aircraft cabin air quality, and in many cases the contamination of the air supply by potentially toxic chemicals, continues to pose a threat to those that work onboard aircraft as well as those that travel onboard aircraft.

“At the heart of the failure of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the manufacturers, and the airlines to resolve problems with aircraft air quality is their failure to acknowledge problems with aircraft air quality.

“There are no standards for protective measures or access to information necessary to prove individuals’ cases; there is effectively no government oversight, allowing the steady flow of "anecdotal" reports to be dismissed as unreliable, and therefore irrelevant.

“Heated oils and hydraulic fluids can leak or spill into the air supply systems during any phase of flight, potentially exposing passengers and crew to carbon monoxide and neurotoxins, such as tricresylphosphates.

“There are almost no protective measures in place to prevent air supply contamination, and contaminated aircraft can be -- and are -- dispatched as ‘airworthy’. Chronic or even permanent neurological damage can result, although affected passengers and crew have little recourse without any record of air monitoring or access to maintenance records. Pilot incapacitation is an additional risk. The FAA has shown no signs that it plans to follow the recent National Research Council committee recommendation for requisite carbon monoxide monitoring on all flights,” Kolander told a congressional panel.

A year ago, a blue ribbon panel of experts recommended voluntary standards for onboard air circulation and monitoring for contaminated air from oil or hydraulic fluid leaks. But the Federal Aviation Administration has yet to act. An FAA spokeswoman says the aviation agency is awaiting the results of other research before taking action on air quality. Those research results aren’t due until late 2010, she added.

Monitoring for contaminated bleed air requires new sensors the FAA says do not yet exist. The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed legislation including a provision for development of bleed-air sensors.

###

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