Health and consumer issues

The Department for Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has initialised a number of research projects to analyse the possible effects on health of aircraft cabin environments. In addition to highly publicised concerns such as deep vein thrombosis (DVT), disruptive behaviour and air quality, it has also investigated cosmic radiation and the effects of working practices onboard aircraft.

The final Regulatory Impact Assessment for the reform of Air Travel Organiser's Licence (ATOL) Bonding was published on Tuesday 23 October 2007.

Impact assessment for increasing the ATOL Protection Contribution (165 kb)

An impact assessment in support of Minister's decision to increase the ATOL protection contribution to £2.50, announced on 16 July 2009.

Published:: 21 July 2009

Air passenger experience at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester airports

In November 2007, the Secretary of State for Transport commissioned advice from CAA on improving the through-airport passenger experience. Concern was expressed about particular pinch points where there is potential for delay and where the responsibility for delivering a good service lies with a combination of bodies.

Cabin air quality frequently asked questions

Concerns have been raised in the media about the possibility of air crew and passengers being exposed to toxins in cabin air. The Department for Transport (DfT) has received a number of enquiries, and these are our answers to the most frequently asked questions.

Published:: 21 April 2008
Last update:: 01 April 2010

Aviation Health Working Group

Minutes of meetings.

Health in aircraft cabins

October 2003 report reviewing the use of aspirin and its effect on deep vein thrombosis.

Archived content

The following content is available from the Department for Transport web archive .

Help accessing downloadable file formats

Most publications are available in portable document format (PDF) or rich text format (RTF) for downloading and reading offline. PDF files may only be compatible with the latest version of the free Adobe Acrobat Reader .

People with visual difficulties may find it useful to learn about improving the accessibility of Acrobat documents at the Adobe Accessibility Resource Centre .

For information about RTF and zip files please visit help with downloads.

If you are unable to access a publication, please contact us to organise a suitable alternative format.

For related documents, pages and internet links, see the column on the right.