Smoking before long-haul flights may be dangerous

Mumbai: The biological effects on air passengers mainly involves the poor absorption of oxygen in blood, due to low oxygen pressure in a pressurised cabin of an aircraft. "People with lung, heart and cerebro vascular diseases are bound to have problems while flying as the oxygen absorption in the blood decreases, aggravating their condition," says Dr Anil Mehra of an air ambulance company. Even patients who have suffered myocardial infarction without any complications need to wait for two weeks before flying.
Smoking before a long-haul flight can be dangerous as the blood haemoglobin absorbs carbon monoxide present in smoke and converts to carboxy haemoglobin, hampering oxygen absorption and thus increasing the risks of hypoxia. For the same reason, those with a haemoglobin count of 8.5 or low infact are unfit to fly. "If you tell this to an airline, they won't let you fly and so people risk their lives," he says.
24/12/06 Manju V/Times of India

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