Doctors Unite In Their Fight Against Economy Class Syndrome

Doctors Unite In Their Fight Against Economy Class Syndrome

Air travel is associated with a two- to threefold increased risk of developing thrombosis, experts said at the 12th Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA) in Vienna (Austria). Doctors urge the EU and national governments to help make air travel safer by supporting research into preventing travelers' thrombosis.

The case of a young English woman who died shortly after a long haul flight from Australia in 2000 has gradually faded from public consciousness. That is unfortunate. Her death highlighted a problem that has long been grossly neglected: the risk to air travelers of venous thrombosis. A contributing factor to the cramped seating in economy class flights may be specific to the cabin environment, i.e. the low air pressure.

With two billion people boarding a plane annually, the danger venous thrombosis presents should be taken very seriously, says Professor Frits R. Rosendaal, from the Leiden University Medical Center (NL), at the European Hematology Association Congress meeting in Vienna from 7 to 10 June 2007. A recent WHO project (the WRIGHT, or WHO Research Into Global Hazards of Travel, project), the results of which are about to be made public, has shown that air travel is associated with a two- to threefold increased risk of developing blood clots in the legs, (deep vein thrombosis or DVT) or in the lungs (pulmonary embolism or PE)."

The risks of developing thrombosis when traveling are higher for people with certain common abnormalities in the blood, for women who use birth control pills, or people who use sleeping pills on a flight, as well as for people who are very tall, very short, or overweight", Professor Rosendaal says. "There may be a 50 to 100-fold increase in risk for people with combinations of those factors."