BEFORE YOU BOARD YOUR NEXT FLIGHT, READ THIS. 27 BRITISH PILOTS WERE TESTED. ALL 27 SHOWED EVIDENCE OF TOXIC EXPOSURE. A former commercial airline captain named John Hoyte @JohnHoytePilot contacted me recently. He flew passenger aircraft for nearly 30 years before developing serious neurological damage and losing his flying career. For almost two decades, he has been trying to force proper investigation of what pilots and cabin crew call contaminated cabin air. Then he sent me the evidence. Parliamentary records. House of Lords testimony. A 320-page report published by the British pilots union. University testing. BBC Panorama. Court cases. Coroner evidence. Litigation in several countries. This story has reached Parliament, scientists, courts, unions and broadcasters. Yet most passengers have probably never heard of it. Most commercial jets use something called bleed air. Compressed air is taken from the engines and fed into the aircraft cabin for passengers and crew to breathe. If engine seals leak, oil and other fluids can enter that air supply. That is where the controversy begins. In 2006, 27 BALPA pilots were tested by researchers at University College London after concerns about exposure to contaminated cabin air. John Hoyte was one of them. All 27 showed evidence consistent with toxic exposure and reduced cognitive performance. @BBCPanorama investigated the issue in its 2008 documentary Something in the Air. The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee heard evidence about contaminated cabin air in 2007 and 2008. In February 2007, around 40 passengers on an XL Airways flight reported illness following a cabin air incident. Litigation followed, including proceedings involving passengers who secured the right to pursue claims in the United States. A UK coroner raised concerns about contaminated cabin air following the death of pilot Richard Westgate in 2012. And the issue has never gone away. France has seen occupational disease claims involving aerotoxic syndrome. Litigation involving pilots, crew and passengers has continued internationally. US law firm Morgan & Morgan is now advertising for airline passengers and crew who say they were injured by toxic cabin air. John founded the Aerotoxic Association at the Houses of Parliament in 2007. The organisation says more than 2,500 people have contacted it believing they were affected. Then there is one fact I find particularly difficult to ignore. Almost every major commercial jet uses engine bleed air for cabin ventilation. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner does not. Boeing designed the 787 with an electrically powered air system that does not take cabin air from the engines. So the technology to avoid engine bleed air already exists. The UK Civil Aviation Authority continues to say that available research has not established a causal link between cabin air exposure and long-term illness. That disagreement is exactly why this deserves serious investigation. John has spent nearly 20 years collecting evidence. He has parliamentary material, medical evidence, technical reports, court documents and first-hand testimony. He is also prepared to speak openly with investigative journalists. He can introduce journalists to Samantha Sabatino, a passenger from the 2007 XL Airways incident whose experience entered the parliamentary record. So this post has one purpose. I WANT A SERIOUS INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST TO PICK THIS UP. Not a two-minute news item. A proper investigation. If you work in investigative journalism, aviation, medicine, toxicology or occupational health, John is willing to answer questions and provide the documents behind this story. Before millions of us board aircraft every year and breathe cabin air for hours at a time, we deserve a clear answer to a very simple question. WHAT EXACTLY ARE WE BREATHING? Sources: @AerotoxicAssoc (Aerotoxic Association) @BALPApilots (British Airline Pilots Association) @forthepeople (Morgan & Morgan) gcaqe org (Global Cabin Air Quality Executive) @BBCPanorama covered it in 2008 with a full documentary titled Something in the Air. @heraldtweets @WSJ @FlightGlobal @TheCanaryUK --- @TMZ @thevivafrei