Doctors from Australia and New Zealand dismissed the concept of "economy class syndrome" yesterday, but called for a major study to determine whether there was any link between air travel and blood clots.
The Australasian Society of Thrombosis & Haemostasis said the risk of fatal deep vein thrombosis (DVT) during air travel had been vastly overstated, adding that blood clots could just as easily occur on long haul bus trips or drives.
"The degree of risk has been overstated, vastly overstated," society president Ross Baker said after attending a meeting of Australian airline officials, unions and medical specialists.
"The medical risk at best estimates is very low," Baker said.
Scientists at Griffith University's aviation medicine center, who also attended the Sydney DVT meeting, went further. "Economy class syndrome does not exist," said the center's Paul Bates.
Neither Qantas nor Ansett officials at the Sydney meeting attended the news conference and neither airline would comment. Baker refused to say whether the airlines had been asked to fund a study or whether they had made any commitment to one.
Eighteen airline passengers in Australia have died since 1992 from blood clots, an Australian newspaper said on Monday quoting coroner's reports.
Melbourne-based law firm Slater & Gordon has received details of almost 2,300 alleged DVT cases, including 116 possible deaths. It says some cases date back to the late 1980s but about half occurred in the past two years.
Global calls for safeguards against DVT arose last October following the death of 28-year-old Briton Emma Christoffersen, who collapsed in the arrival hall of London's Heathrow airport after returning from Australia following the Olympic Games.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft