Breathing uneasy
on airlinersThe issue: The FAA has made little
progress on researching and
monitoring airliner air quality.While the Federal Aviation Administration is working vigorously to protect passengers from hijackers and bombs, it has done little to ensure that the air in cabins of commercial jets is safe to breathe. Fifteen years after the National Academy of Sciences first recommended that air quality be evaluated, the FAA still has not conducted the necessary research, and it should. Safe flying should include safe air.
A new academy study issued last week pointed to poor air quality on planes as of particular concern for the elderly, infants and people who suffer heart or lung diseases. Because air pressure in a passenger jet simulates the oxygen supply found at 6,000 to 8,000 feet above sea level, these people may suffer even further. Headaches, nausea, shortness of breath and dizziness are quite common at such high altitudes. The study reported that although healthy adults face fewer risks, prolonged exposure to ozone and carbon monoxide found in cabins can adversely affect frequent flyers and especially airline crews who day after day spend hours breathing the potentially toxic gases.
A priority should be an evaluation of elevated ozone concentrations, which can interfere with the function of lungs. Some airliners flown in areas with high ozone levels are equipped with systems to filter it out, but others are not and projections of ozone regions are notably unreliable.
Recirculated air is not likely to spread infectious diseases, as some people contend. Those illnesses are probably due to passengers being crowded together, the report says. Absent a system to monitor air quality routinely, however, nothing is certain.
Passengers on flights between Hawaii and the mainland are often subjected to pesticide sprays in the cabins before landing. Whether those chemicals are harmful should also be addressed.
The primary point the study made was that experts and scientists could not determine the validity of the growing number of complaints about air quality in the planes because there is too little information available. The only way to counter the complaints is through monitoring, research and documenting complaints. Until these are done, the public may suffer more from bad air as from the threat of hijacking.
Legislator throws
in the towelThe issue: Terry Yoshinaga resigns
as chair-woman of a key committee
in the state House.When the going gets tough, the faint-hearted take their leave, or so it appears in the case of veteran state Rep. Terry Yoshinaga. Declaring that she has no voice within the Democratic leadership in the House, Yoshinaga resigned last week as chairwoman of the Labor and Public Employment Committee. Surrendering her post, however, only serves to diminish her voice further. She would have better served voters had she stuck it out.
Yoshinaga said she felt reined in by the "policies and protocols of the current leadership." More specifically, she was annoyed that she "was excluded from participation" in developing a bill on privatizing government operations. "I was never able to share my views as chair," she complained.
Having served eight years in the House, one would think that the machinations of politics at the State Capitol would be all too familiar to Yoshinaga. Like it or not, wheeling and dealing are integral parts of legislating and skillful politicians find grounds for consensus without compromising their goals.
Governor Cayetano, in his days in the state Legislature, often found himself at odds with his own party. He was alternately insider and maverick, at one point going from chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee to head of the inconsequential Agriculture Committee after a failed coup to take over the Senate leadership. He toughed it out and eventually came out ahead.
Manoa Rep. Ed Case, once Democratic leader in the House, has similarly found himself a party outcast, breaking with Democrats over civil service reform. Case has been somewhat successful in broadcasting his message since then, however, and is sticking to his guns as he seeks to win the governor's mansion.
It may be that the frustration level grew too high for Yoshinaga. It may be that in resigning the chairmanship -- a rare occurrence in the Legislature -- she intended to provoke debate and to draw attention to the faults of the House leadership. Because of her relatively low profile on the political scene, her move hasn't created much of a stir. Her exit raised eyebrows and a few questions -- including some about her changing political ambitions -- but it probably won't have much effect on voters or colleagues.
In the long view, it appears that Yoshinaga has cut off her nose to spite her face. "I am not going to be a rubber stamp for someone else's agenda," she grumbled. Yet, by leaving her chairmanship, she has assured that her own agenda, whatever it is, will get even less notice.
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
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