| WELCOME, AIR TRAVELERS! We help air travelers—frequent and infrequent flyers, and crew, too. Our mission is to make the flying experience healthier, safer, less fatiguing, and more comfortable. On planes today, all a pax (airline code word for passenger) can do is endure. You can hardly move or breathe. The in-flight environment—low in oxygen and high in germs and toxins—is producing a global post-flight epidemic of aggravation and illness. This site is designed to inform, empower, and organize air travelers. Please join us.
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INFORM: Pax can get accurate, up-to-date
information on safe, healthy flying. If you don't see what you're looking
for, please ask. • ORGANIZE: PaxPax.org wants to bring your concerns and frustrations to light and will focus on your feedback in future articles as we continue to work towards manifesting health-conscious flying. We need your input to contradict the well-organized, airline industry hype. Here's an example. In July 2002, a survey of pax on 250 flights between Denver and San Francisco compared aircraft using “100 percent fresh air” with those who flew on planes with “recirculated air.” The survey found no difference in the incidence of upper-respiratory infections among the two groups of pax. Since the survey was conducted on short flights of 2 hours, it's conclusions are appropriately short sighted. On longer flights, of course, the immune system's defense is lowered from the bombardment of toxins and viruses, and from the effects of dehydration, radiation, and hypoxia. And though the survey compared planes with “100 percent fresh air” with those that flew with “recirculated air,” the truth is that there is no fresh air on airplanes. Any fresh air is processed in the engines where it can get tainted with chemical fumes before picking up mold and other nasty stuff in the plane's air-conditioning ducts. The survey did show that 20 percent of all pax came down with upper respiratory infections. Everyone who flies knows that a lot of people get sick from flying. How many? Whether it's 80 percent (as in a World Bank study) or 20 percent as in this survey, it's still too many pax getting sick from flying.
To achieve our goal to manifest health-conscious air travel, our model is Fairechild's Passenger Bill of Rights, written for the protection of all air travelers. Diana Fairechild is a former international flight attendant and chief purser who flew 10 million miles and is now medically retired. Her lifelong passion is to help pax—and PaxPax.org is her vision. The tips offered in Diana's research-based books and online publications are designed to help pax make the best of a compromised situation. What PaxPax.org is aiming for is a time when the airlines will pay attention to the health and well being of pax and crew.
• In
her 1992 book JET SMART, Diana wrote that airplane drinking water
is not potable. Ten years later the Wall Street Journal came out with a study,
which corroborated Diana’s research and in October 2004 the Environmental
Protection Agency came out with their own study, which also corroborated
Diana’s research. • On 11-15-04, Diana wrote about the inappropriateness of TSA screeners touching women's breasts at Airport Security. Immediately afterwards, two security web sites (one a manufacturer of airport security machines and the other for TSA employees) asked permission to post Diana's article, and readers wrote about organizing a petition. On 12-23-04, the U.S. government revised its policy and the nation's 45,000 TSA screeners were told not to touch women's breasts. [MORE FAIRECHILD FIRSTS]
Help clean up the skies. For the past 14 years, Diana has been outspoken on the many problems in the airline industry. She has written over a hundred articles on air safety and pax rights and been quoted on aviation issues by practically every major media source including ABC, NBC, CNN, Reuters News Service, Forbes, USA Today, TIME, Smart Money, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Here are some quotes, which acknowledge Diana's pioneering work as an airline pax advocate. -National Law Journal "Ms. Fairechild, an activist in the movement to clean up the skies, deals decisively with such thorny (and in many cases previously undisclosed) in-flight environmental issues as pesticide spraying (which she calls 'killer mists'), toxic chemicals, radiation, ozone, bad air, noise, g-forces and electromagnetic pulses. Ms. Fairechild has gathered a mountain of information during her 21 years in the skies and gives the reader her personal spin on each." -Los Angeles Times "Former flight attendant Diana Fairechild flew 10 million miles before health problems grounded her, a direct result, she says, of exposure to pesticides and other chemicals on commercial aircraft. Fairechild's campaign to alert travelers about the dangers of spraying bug killers on airplanes is being waged in cyberspace." -Smart Money "Take the advice of Diana Fairechild." -American Bar Association Journal "Fairechild has a bag of carry-on health tricks larger than fits in the overhead compartment." -U.S. News & World Report "Airlines should be 'responsible for informing passengers of the physical impact of flight,' says Diana Fairechild." -CNN-TV "Diana Fairechild is an aviation health and safety analyst." -New York Times "Diana Fairechild, a former flight attendant, writes about and does consulting on the health risks of flying." -Air Reporter "With a sense of humor she skillfully weaves into the prose, Fairechild offers a wide range of ideas for veteran crew as well as for the infrequent flyer." -Copley Newspapers "The thing I enjoy only slightly less than a tooth extraction is flying. Fairechild, still perky after what amounts to 300 circumnavigations of the globe, said that the mostly non-lethal dangers of air travel amount to one of the great unexplored environmental health issues of the day. Considering how many of us this affects, this lone voice is well worth hearing." -Earth Journal "'Hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation in the central nervous system, can occur when not enough air is put into the cabins,' says Diana Fairechild." -Art Bell, Coast to Coast AM "Fairechild explains how recycled air on planes contributes to air rage and in spreading infectious diseases." -Maui News "Diana Fairechild likens air flight to childbirth. In her simile the passenger is like the baby and the jet the womb which, unlike mom's, fails to adequately sustain the well-being of its inhabitants." -ThePowerHour.com "Thank you so much Diana Fairechild for coming forward and saying what needs to be said about the airline industry. You are a real hero." -Nancy Gondo, Investor's Business Daily "'The situation is too tight, too crowded, and too impersonal,' Fairechild said. 'The seats are too small, they're too close together, and there isn't enough oxygen.'" -Priorities "According to Fairechild, flying first-class is not about gourmet meals anymore—it's about air. Passengers in first class, she alleges, get approximately three times more oxygen per person than do those in economy." -Veja
Brazil "Teixeira asked
Fairechild if her health condition 'ever endangered her life.' Fairechild
said 'Yes, it's been a life or death battle with my health and that's why
I'm so passionate about getting this information out to airline passengers—that
people find out what's really going on so they can protect themselves.'" -Point Survey "Diana Fairechild, a former flight attendant and authority on jetlag, has created this innovative site to help you fly with ease. Terrific information from an insider; a great find for frequent travelers." -GQ Magazine "Diana Fairechild, who, having circled the planet more than a hundred times, is able to offer tips on everything from how to avoid blocked ears to how to get a freshly brewed cup of coffee." -Uri Geller, Psychic "Diana Fairechild is a natural born healer. She was put on Earth to help millions of people. I really truly feel that Diana's motivation is to educate us, the people who fly—who could die on airplanes." -Sacramento Bee "Fairechild's subject matter is how to combat the indignities and discomforts of air travel." |
