Health

Science raves
by Claudia Sonea

If you ever wondered why you have headaches and dry eyes after flying, don't bother to blame the airplane's ventilation system, researchers will argue with you. Science comes again in help and explains how your oily body and ozone in the upper atmosphere interact inducing you the in-flight illness. American and Danish researchers made an experiment on two groups of 16 volunteers in a mockup of an airline, in simulated four-hour flights. They were exposed to varying levels of ozone and air flow like in the actual flights and discovered that the ozone in the cabins increased the production of identifiable chemical byproducts, especially those that create headaches, nasal irritation and other symptoms of "sick building" syndrome. According to study leader Charles Weschler, a chemist at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, the interaction of ozone with bodily oils such as squalene, oleic acid on volunteer's skin, hair and clothing produced more than half of the discovered chemicals. He also said that more studies are required and as a result measures can be taken in order to reduce their production in aircraft and buildings to a level that Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recommends. The worst type of airplane is the narrow one, because it is not properly equipped with the ozone-destroying catalysts that are common on wide-body planes and this way the ozone in the cabin can exceed greatly the average of 100 ppb recommended by the FAA during a four-hour flight that includes cruising at or above 27,000 feet. For further information just visit LiveScience.com and all your hunger of knowledge will be satisfied. Science like always raves.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070907/sc_livescience/inflightillstiedtoskinoil;_ylt=AlBf_e9so_03EYrzinkrCUis0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

posted by Blog TechSource @ 4:33 PM