Some pilots and flight attendants have experienced serious health problems, including brain damage, after fume events, The Times found. No government agency tracks fume events or how often people become sick or impaired. Without sensors to measure air quality, planes rely on a low-tech method: the smell test. Studies on airplane air quality have looked only at normal flights in which no fume events were reported. No major research has ever measured the chemicals in fume events as they occur.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 10, 2023 23:28 UTC