Smoking before long-haul flights may be dangerous

The biological effects on air passengers mainly involves the poor absorption of oxygen in blood, due to low oxygen pressure in a pressurised cabin of an aircraft. "People with lung, heart and cerebro vascular diseases are bound to have problems while flying as the oxygen absorption in the blood decreases, aggravating their condition," says Dr Anil Mehra of an air ambulance company. Even patients who have suffered myocardial infarction without any complications need to wait for two weeks before flying. Smoking before a long-haul flight can be dangerous as the blood haemoglobin absorbs carbon monoxide present in smoke and converts to carboxy haemoglobin, hampering oxygen absorption and thus increasing the risks of hypoxia. For the same reason, those with a haemoglobin count of 8.5 or low infact are unfit to fly. "If you tell this to an airline, they won't let you fly and so people risk their lives," he says.

Apart from pressure differences, humidity levels are low inside an aircraft cabin. While the percent humidity in Mumbai, for instance, would be about 60-70 %, its 8-10 % inside an aircraft. Dehydration occurs if you don't have water or if you have a drink too much. Dehydration is one of the many factors that could lead to deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and people with high amount of cholesterol/triglycerides in their blood and female flyers, who are on oral contraceptives run a high risk of DVT. "Contraceptives increases the viscosity of blood—so does cholesterol and other fatty acids—leading to DVT when combined with other factors like sitting cramped in a position for hours," he says. The solution would be to have an aspirin tablet—if you are not allergic to it— before a flight. Medical practitioners also criticised the facilities at the airport. Says Dr Lata Nakhwa, GM, medical, Air India: "The facilities need to be upgraded and there is scope for upgradation." She stresses the need to have emergency management doctors in the airport.

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