The Many Health Risks of Airline Travel
By Nishanga Bliss
I am an acupuncturist and holistic doctor. For years, whenever my patients have planned a flight, I have prescribed herbs to help them avoid getting a cold or flu. While this often helps them avoid getting sick, research backs up the common wisdom that it is easy to catch a cold when you fly. One 2004 report in the Journal of Environmental Health Research suggested that the risk of getting a cold after a flight is over 100 times higher than if you didn’t fly. A 2002 study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that nearly 20% of passengers flying between San Francisco and Denver reported cold symptoms within 5-7 days after the flight.
There are other acute health risks from airline travel, including the risk of deep vein thrombosis, or blood clots, not to mention jet lag, noise-induced hearing loss, travel fatigue and cosmic radiation exposure (much greater than the radiation exposure from security screening, read more about it here. Taking a trip by bus, train, car, boat or foot is not risk-free, but is likely to make for a healthier and more enjoyable journey. Slower travel can be more meaningful travel as well, allowing the body and psyche more time to adjust to a new environment and to savor the journey.
People who fly frequently face an increase in serious health problems. These are linked to the repeated disruption of biorhythms from jumping time zones and the physical stresses of flight, mirroring the poor health outcomes of long-term night- and graveyard-shift workers. A 2007 meta-analysis over 500 studies on aviation and health published in Britain’s premier medical journal, The Lancet, found increases in cognitive decline, psychotic and mood disorders, sleep disorders and possible increases in heart disease and cancer in frequent fliers.
The current coronavirus outbreak offers a sobering reminder of the most serious air travel health hazard—the spread of disease.
The current coronavirus outbreak offers a sobering reminder of the most serious air travel health hazard—the spread of disease. International travel has played a role creating pandemics since the Black Death, but the advent of flying has created an exponential increase in risk. The speed and pervasiveness of flying make disease transmission much harder to control. SFO, for example, has suspended dozens of flights to and from China this February due to concerns about further spreading the new virus.
The most compelling health concern posed by flying is not a risk, but a certainty. Flying is the single most potent contribution to greenhouse gas emissions that an individual can make.
The most compelling health concern posed by flying is not a risk, but a certainty. Flying is the single most potent contribution to greenhouse gas emissions that an individual can make. I calculated my emissions from the miles I flew last year, and was dismayed to find that calculation alone doubled my personal carbon footprint. That calculation cemented my resolve to stay on the ground in 2020. I’ve had a great time planning this year’s family travel adventures by train and car, and making camping reservations in local state parks. We are looking forward to a long-distance train trip to meet family who live on the other coast. I am skipping professional and educational flying by collaborating with people across the country and the world by email, cloud, phone and video chat.
Among the many people around the world who are stepping up and into the climate justice movement are doctors and healthcare workers. We recognize that the climate crisis is a health crisis and that climate change is the number one public health issue of our times. US physicians are already seeing upticks in climate-change driven illnesses, such as Lyme disease, heat stroke, asthma related to air pollution, as well as mental health problems related to climate anxiety, catastrophic events such as floods, and higher temperatures. In January, the American Medical Association and 23 other US medical groups sent a letter to President Trump urging him to rejoin and honor the Paris Climate Agreement. Medical associations and professionals world wide are making the connections between climate and health, not just in the future but now. In a moving video editorial from October, Lancet editor Richard Bolton urged doctors to participate in nonviolent civil disobedience to draw attention to the crisis and uphold their duties as doctors to protect health. View it here.
Choosing not to fly and talking to others about that choice is one simple and powerful action that an individual can take to help protect the health and future of life on our planet. Won’t you join me in staying on the ground in 2020?
Nishanga Bliss is a doctor of acupuncture and integrative medicine in Berkeley, California.
References:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/195131
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature06536#Sec1
https://www.livescience.com/13878-health-hazards-air-travel.html
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/01/31/dozens-of-sfo-china-flights-suspended-due-to-coronavirus/
NY TIMES 2/18/20 Airlines Suspend China Flights Due to Coronavirus Outbreak