Cabin air contamination problems in jet aircraft.

A IR or atmospheric pollution problems have increased many fold during the past few decades. Air pollution and its control have grown t o become factors of tremendous importance to the economy and health of many industrialized and urbanized communities. Air pollution has been defined as the excessive concentration of foreign matter in the air which adversely affects the well being of the individual or causes damage to property. 8 This pollution may not always cause injury to health when it is intolerably annoying and disagreeable. Health hazards need not be demonstrated to establish the need for air pollution correction. Both the military aviation services and the aircraft industry have recently become aware of similar if not the same problems in newly developed high speed aircraft. In the Air Force test pilots complained of obnoxious odors, eye and nasal irritations, and headache associated with the presence of smoke in the aircraft cabin during flight operations. Preliminary investigations revealed that the smoke, including fumes and gases, were a result of the thermal decomposition of engine oil which had leaked into the