Understanding Cabin Air Quality

On January 17 and 18, 2023, the European Aviation Safety Agency EASA hosted a workshop on "Cabin Air Quality" with more than 100 participants from science and aeronautical engineering, authorities, airlines, trade unions and other stakeholders in Cologne.

The focus was on the presentation of the EASA-funded project "Cabin Air Quality III" aimed at collecting additional scientific evidence concerning cabin air contamination events under the lead of Fraunhofer Gesellschaft. Details of the planned studies were presented by Fraunhofer and the other research institutes represented in the consortium - the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM, Netherlands), the National Research Center for the Working Environment (NFA, Denmark) and the Helmholtz Zentrum München (Germany). The CAQ III consortium and EASA received important feedback from the stakeholder audience and openly discussed objectives and limitations of the project which also involves the German Armed Forces Medical Academy and partners from the aviation industry and airlines. 

Furthermore, initial results from a study conducted by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) with Kansas State University (KSU) were presented, as well as an initiative by the French government organization French Occupational Health Agency (ANSES). The Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine (IPA) of the German Social Accident Insurance reported on the FUSE II study on the biological monitoring of flight personnel after so-called "fume and smell events". 

Somewhat mid-term of the three-year CAQ III research project, the 2nd stakeholder workshop was hold on February 20 and 21, 2024, again at EASA’s headquarters in Cologne. The project group reported on interim results of fume event simulation, in vivo toxicological analysis, and a field study analyzing HEPA filters from A320 aircrafts with and without reported smell events. An update of the KSU project was provided as well.