Inhaled Unfiltered - The Truth About Aerotoxic Syndrome

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Movie
German title Inhaled Unfiltered - The Truth About Aerotoxic Syndrome
Original title Unfiltered Breathed In - The Truth about Aerotoxic Syndrome
Unfiltered de-121015.jpg
Country of production Germany
original language English , German
Publishing year 2015
length 216 min minutes
Age rating FSK without
Rod
Director Tim van Beveren
script Tim van Beveren
production tvbmedia productions & suju-films, Berlin
music EMI Production Music and InterVox Production Music
camera Frederik Rotkopf, Axel Goppel, Holger Uhl, Tim van Beveren
cut Rose Berg, Tim van Beveren, Volker Rosendahl
occupation

Richard Westgate, Freya von der Ropp, Angel Brain, Joanne de Bott, Frank Cannon, Jörg Handwerg, Bearairdine Baumann, Michel Mulder, David Learmount, Frank van de Goot, Chris Winder, Mohamed B. Abou-Donia, Dietrich Henschler, Christiaan van Netten, Jeremy Ramsden, Jean-Christophe Balouet, Thomas Lutze, Markus Tressel

Inhaled unfiltered - The Truth About Aerotoxic Syndrome is a 120-minute documentary by the Berlin journalist and filmmaker Tim van Beveren . It shows the technical, medical, social and political backgrounds of the aerotoxic syndrome as a critical and controversial topic in aviation today. A special focus is on the analyzes and research results on the corpse of the British pilot Richard Westgate († December 12, 2012).

Synopsis

Image from the film of a copilot with an oxygen mask

The film aims to prove that the problem of contaminated cabin air and the resulting clinical picture, also known as " aerotoxic syndrome ", has been played down by the aviation industry in those affected for years. The incidents are called "fume events" or "smell events" in industry jargon and are now reported to the responsible authorities. So far, only pilots can protect themselves by putting on their oxygen masks. To date, there is no comparable protection for passengers.

In the film, scientists and experts, such as the discoverers of the aerotoxic syndrome, the Australian toxicologist Chris Winder († 2014) and the French forensic scientist Jean-Christophe Balouet, the Canadian toxicologist Christiaan van Netten, the German toxicologist Dietrich Henschler († 2014) discuss Jeremy Ramsden (formerly Cranfield University UK and later head of the Westgate Research Team), Mohamed B. Abou Donia (Duke University, USA) Frank van de Goot (Dutch forensic pathologist), Michel Mulder (doctor and pilot), Frank Cannon (Glasgow - Attorney for Richard Westgate), the clergyman and former Australian Senator John Woodley (headed an investigative committee of the Australian Senate from 1999-2000), the British aviation expert David Learmount (Flight International), the spokesman for the cockpit pilots' association Jörg Handwerg as well as passengers and crew members concerned Problem from their different points of view.

Premieres

The English-language original version premiered on July 15, 2015 in the Babylon cinema in Berlin-Mitte. This was followed by a panel discussion lasting several hours with politicians, trade unionists and experts, which was recorded. The essential statements of the film were confirmed by experts. The 116-minute German language version premiered on October 11, 2015 in the Hamburg arthouse cinema Metropolis.

background

Tim van Beveren has been working on the subject since 2008, was the author of several television reports and articles on the subject and one of the six experts in a private hearing of the German Bundestag in October 2011.

Technical background

The film shows that the fully synthetic oils and lubricants developed for military jet engines in the late 1940s contain toxic additives that already caused health problems for US military pilots in the early 1950s and were considered a danger by the US Aeromedical Association identified for flight safety.

Image from the film explaining the extraction of compressed air from the engine

This was true for aircraft types that at that same time the breathing air for the cockpit directly abzapften from the engines ( bleed air - English bleedair.). With the introduction of Sud Aviation Caravelle at the end of the 1950s, civil aircraft were equipped with this technology for the first time. The Canadian toxicologist Christiaan van Netten explains that at this point in time, the criteria for the approval and use of the lubricants were not checked and adjusted with regard to their potential risk to the occupants. In the alternative common up to then, the breathing air for the cockpit and cabin was generated by so-called ram air. With ram air technology, the outside air is taken in through inlets on the fuselage, compressed and made available as breathing air.

Based on specific incidents such as the one on a Germanwings Airbus A319 in December 2010 when approaching Cologne and the incident on board a Condor Boeing 757 in Las Palmas in March 2013 in Las Palmas, which the Spanish flight accident authority classified as an accident, the film also depicts the role of the BFU aircraft accident investigation center in question.

The British aerospace engineer Graeme Davidson, who has worked for the engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce and the aircraft manufacturer British Aerospace for many years, also has a say . This explains in detail why all jet engines regularly leak oil, and advocates the thesis that the introduction of longer maintenance intervals in the 1990s has exacerbated the problem, especially with the engines, since an engine has to be completely dismantled to replace the neuralgic seals inside.

Medical-scientific examination

Richard Mark Westgate

Van Beveren accompanied the investigations on the remains of British Airways pilot Richard Mark Westgate in detail . Westgate was found dead in his hotel room in a suburb of Amsterdam on December 12, 2012. He had been receiving medical treatment in Holland since the spring of 2012, after he was convinced that his severe neurological symptoms and pain were due to contaminated cabin air and aerotoxic syndrome. The pilot had therefore already bequeathed his body to science for the study of the phenomenon before his death. This made it possible for the first time to conduct basic research on the clinical picture of the human organism. The results of the medical-forensic analyzes on seized samples from his brain, nerve cords and the heart muscle, which lasted over two years, were published in a scientific publication at the end of July 2014 by the participating scientists and doctors. Findings that indicated the advanced death of vital cells in these organs were particularly striking. According to the scientists involved, this is due to persistent poisoning with small amounts of organophosphates (as found in engine oils and aircraft lubricants) over a longer period of time. After the examinations on Richard Westgate, other flight crew members who had died unnaturally were autopsied by the same team of scientists and the tissue samples taken were forensically pathologically analyzed. In all cases, the findings were similar. The findings prompted the British coroner (coroner), Sheriff Stanhope Payne, who was responsible for investigating the cause of Mr. Westgate's death, to inform both Westgate's former employer and the UK Aviation Authority of the worrying findings and to seek remedial action. In particular, according to Sheriff Payne, there is a risk of further deaths, in particular from failures of pilots and their illnesses.

Political background

Documents shown in the film suggest that aircraft manufacturers, airlines and their associations are aware of the problem and that politicians and the public have not been properly informed of the extent of the problem. The film proves this by showing problems with the BAe 146 aircraft and with Boeing 757 aircraft with the Rolls-Royce RB211 engine . From the minutes of meetings leaked to the journalist in connection with the accident of one of their Boeing 757s in Las Palmas, a problematic proximity between aviation companies (here Condor) and government agencies (here the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (BFU)) is postulated. This should also show how the media reporting on incidents was "controlled" by the Condor company.

John Woodley

The head of an investigative committee of the Australian Senate (1999-2000), the clergyman and former Senator John Woodley, has his say. Documents leaked to the Australian Senate in 2007 from an airline that has since become insolvent proved goodwill payments by the British aircraft manufacturer British Aerospace. As early as 2000, the investigation by the Australian Senate found that exposure in fume events was the cause of the disease.

solutions

Finally, existing solutions are also considered, especially in the form of the Boeing 787 (Dreamliner), which went into service in 2011 , whose air supply is operated without the bleed air system identified as the cause of cabin air contamination. It is also emphasized that already officially approved filter systems z. B. are in use on the Boeing 757 fleet of the freight company DHL and the Bavarian company Gröger & Obst GmbH has developed a successfully tested prototype of a sensor for early warning.

criticism

The film has received a few positive reviews in various media.

Although the film was presented in several major German cities, including Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Munich, no reviews appeared in some of the relevant print media based there, despite the invitation of the local editors by the production company and the cinema operators. This was particularly noticeable in connection with the world premiere on July 15, 2015 in the Berlin arthouse cinema Babylon in Berlin-Mitte. The magazine for political culture Cicero investigated this fact in an article published on August 13, 2015 with the title Filtered Reporting and quoted the chairman of the supposedly “politically neutral” and “economically independent” Luftfahrt-Presseclub-Ost and Tagesspiegel journalist Rainer W During: "A few colleagues would have told him that they were 'not interested' in participating 'because of the organiser's known one-sided view." Cicero also reported , as the world reporter Per Hinrichs said on the occasion of the panel discussion after the World premiere stated that the Airbus press office had called his chief editor and warned against a collaboration with Tim van Beveren. The magazine has also received two emails from the Airbus press office from 2010 and 2014 in which the company spoke out against public broadcasters against a “collaboration” with van Beveren and “formats initiated by him”.

distribution

In October 2016, a supplemented version of the film was released in German, English and French as a special edition on DVD. According to the production company, this was made possible by the support of the trade unions ver.di and Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) as well as a French interest group, the “Association des Victimes des Syndrome Aérotoxique” (AVSA). This version also contains the more recent medical and scientific findings that were obtained from the examinations by the Institute for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine at the Georg-August University of Göttingen up to January 2016.

The ROM section of the DVD also contains a previously unpublished manuscript by the Australian toxicologist Professor Chris Winder († 2014) as well as various guides for crew members and passengers on how to proceed after a "fume event".

Awards

In April 2016 the film was a finalist at the New York Festivals - International TV & Film Awards 2016 and in May 2016 an "International Award of Merit" at the International Film festival for the Environment, Health and Culture in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Unfiltered Breathed in: The Truth About Aerotoxic Syndrome (2015) . Retrieved January 5, 2016.
  2. ↑ http://www.filmgazette.de/index.php?s=filmkritiken&id=1547
  3. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ibdh3umbOE
  4. ↑ Per Hinrichs: Gas in the cockpit: Germanwings hushed up near-crash over Cologne. In: welt.de . September 27, 2012, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Katharina Graça Peters: Suspicion of poisonous fumes: Oil stench pollutes Canary Islands vacationers in Condor-Jet. In: Spiegel Online . March 23, 2013, accessed June 10, 2018 .
  6. Jump up ↑ Aerotoxic Syndrome: The Fall of Pilot Richard Westgate - Pictures & Photos. In: welt.de . July 30, 2014, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  7. ↑ http://www.welt.de/bin/case-study-130712813.pdf
  8. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moZFD65FPE4
  9. ↑ https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Westgate-2015-0050.pdf
  10. ↑ http://www.welt.de/bin/bdf-130633341.pdf
  11. ↑ http://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2007-08-13.83.1
  12. ↑ http://www.welt.de/bin/boeing2007-130627490.pdf
  13. ↑ http://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2007-08-13.83.1
  14. ↑ http://www.aph.gov.au/binaries/senate/committee/rrat_ctte/completed_inquiries/1999-02/bae/report/report.pdf
  15. ↑ http://bleedfree.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/B757-air-filter-EASA-STC.pdf
  16. ↑ http://www.unfilteredbreathedin.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/nah-dran-06  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . November 2015-2.pdf@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.unfilteredbreathedin.com  
  17. ↑ http://www.ungefiltert-eingeatmet.de/ungefiltert-eingeatmet-de/presse/
  18. ↑ http://www.cicero.de/kapital/kinofilm-ueber-kontaminierte-kabinenluft-gefilterte-berichtdienstleistungen/59698
  19. ↑ Press release October 1st, 2016 . In: tvbmedia.de . October 1, 2016 ( tvbmedia.de [accessed December 1, 2016]).
  20. ↑ Tim van Beveren: INHALED UNFILTERED - The truth about the aerotoxic syndrome. tvbmedia productions, accessed December 1, 2016 .
  21. ^ New York Festivals - 2016 World's Best Television & Films ™ Winners. In: www.newyorkfestivals.com. Retrieved December 1, 2016 .
  22. ^ Winners - International Film Festival Environment, Health, and Culture. In: internationalfilmfestivals.org. Retrieved December 1, 2016 .