Advanced Online Biosensor for Aircraft Cabin Safety

A multidisciplinary team are looking to develop a sensing system which can be deployed on commercial aircraft to monitor the quality of cabin air in a hope to guard against or quantify passenger exposure to toxic molecules; caused by toxins contained in bleed air which is taken from the engines to pressurise and heat the cabin. Exposure to such neuro toxins have been thought by responsible for a health condition called "aerotoxic syndrome", which in extreme circumstances has been shown to be life threatning. International legislation is being written to enforce mandatory monitoring by airliners to alert crew should the toxin be detected during flight. This said technology capable of being deployed on an aircraft does not presently exist. The team is being lead by MicroLab Devices and uses sensing technology developed by the University of Leeds to perform the detection. Analox Systems will help work-up the technology and package it ready for aircraft deployment, by Pall Europe.