CASA media release - Thursday 11 September 2008
Aircraft air quality panel appointed
A panel of ten experts has been established to look at issues relating to the quality of cabin air in aircraft.
Members of the panel have expertise in aviation, occupational medicine, public health, toxicology, aviation engineering, epidemiology, aviation medicine, ethics and critical appraisal.
The Expert Panel on Cabin Air Quality will review existing international research and reports on cabin air quality, take submissions and deliver recommendations on future actions.
A key part of the panel’s work will be critically looking at current scientific research on cabin air and producing a synopsis of Australian and international knowledge.
The newly created panel will have its first meeting later this month and will deliver a final report in the first quarter of 2010. The existing Cabin Air Quality Reference Group will then consider the recommendations.
The panel is headed by Dr Michael Bollen, a general practitioner with expertise in chemical sensitivities and experience in chairing expert committees.
The other nine members are:
- George Braitberg, an expert in clinical toxicology and Professor of Emergency Medicine at Monash University
- Kerry Breen, a gastroenterologist who specialises in medical ethics and medico-legal issues
- Graeme Cleary, the safety and technical director of the Australian and International Pilots Association
- Paul Cousins, a highly experienced licensed aircraft maintenance engineer and executive member of the International Federation of Airworthiness
- Rob Loblay, a senior lecturer in immunology at Sydney University and expert in multiple chemical sensitivity
- Pooshan Navathe, the senior medical officer in CASA with more than 30 years experience in aviation medicine
- Malcolm Sim, an occupational and public health physician and director of the Monash Centre for Environmental and Occupational Health
- Bhupi Singh, the head of research at the RAAF Institute of Aviation Medicine
- Chris Winder, the Professor of Applied Toxicology at the University of NSW and an expert in workplace exposure to chemicals, with experience in aircraft air quality.
Read for more information on the expert panel
Media contact:
Peter Gibson
mobile 0419 296 446
Ref: MR10108