But some airlines continue to insist that DVT is the responsibility of the customer. The flying public should be better informed about who's at risk and what they can do before, not during, the flight. If cramped cabin conditions do in fact lead to the immobility that can cause DVT, then European authorities may have a case to answer. It's a similar situation with cabin air quality. Some medical research suggests not.
Airlines insist that their air is neither polluted nor unhealthy.
But in January, British Airways admitted to a problem with its fleet of Boeing 777s after crew members reported a high incidence of nausea and fainting. Boeing has said it is studying ways to improve the airflow. The project, which gets half its funding from the European Commission, aims to propose a European industry pre-standard for cabin air that can then be adopted into law. About half the cabin air passengers breathe is recirculated, meaning that it has been sucked out of the cabin, passed through filters and returned to the cabin mixed with fresh air drawn from outside via the engines. Industry experts currently insist that microbes are caught in complex filtering systems and that passengers face, for example, no greater risk of contracting an illness from a fellow passenger than they would on a crowded train.