Indoor Air Cartoon Journal, January 2019, Volume 2, #41

The higher the aircraft altitude, the higher is the probability of its occupants being exposed to higher ozone concentrations inside aircraft. Aircraft passengers could be exposed to higher ozone concentrations than in buildings. If precautionary measures are not taken to reduce the exposure, exposure to higher ozone concentrations could increase the prevalence of ozone-initiated chemistry occurrence. What this means is that the risk of developing eye and upper respiratory symptoms, caused by ozone and its initiated chemistry products, could be much higher. Other health implications could also occur. Longer flight, leading to longer exposure, could also increase the risk.

Seasonal variation could increase or reduce the outdoor ozone concentration at the altitude an aircraft is flying. Ozone concentration during the summer season is usually higher than the winter season. Ozone converter is a typical ozone removal technology commonly adopted in aircraft. If the ozone converter is not used, ozone exposure level inside the aircraft will be very high. Ozone air cleaning technology with high efficiency will reduce exposure to ozone and its initiated chemistry products. The technology usefulness will deteriorate with deterioration in its ozone removal efficiency. Developing ozone removal technology with prolonged efficiency will be useful in delivering very low ozone concentrations consistently in aircraft.

Do you want to know more about this topic? Read Beko et al. (2015) and Bhangar and Nazaroff (2013).