asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will take action to respond to the problems facing passengers and crews outlined in the Global Cabin Air Quality Executive's latest report. [HL2883]

The Government do not want anyone travelling by air to be at risk of their health. We are leading research in this area in response to the House of Lords Science and Technology inquiry into Air Travel and Health (update report published in December 2007) and the evidence review by the Committee on Toxicity (published in September 2007).

We have commissioned a world first research project to try to capture substances released during transient “fume events.” The first stage of this work was to identify and test equipment capable of sampling cabin air. The report into this first stage work was published by Cranfield University on 21 February after peer review. It is published on the department's website. The next phase of work is to use the equipment identified to capture real-time fume events; this work is being developed as a priority.