Passengers concerned over ill-effects of aircraft disinfection/fumigation carried out by many airlines while they are still on board may soon be a thing of past.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday directed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to issue direction in this regard, stating that from now on such fumigation be carried out only with no passengers on board.

The Tribunal was assured by the Airlines and others concerned that “they would ensure that no disinfectant/insecticide fumigation is carried out in the aircraft of any airline, while lending and taking off in any part of the country, if any person or passenger is in the aircraft without safety measures.”

They further submitted that “such activity of spraying disinfectant would be carried out only when the aircraft is empty at the appropriate time.”

The NGT even remarked, “You are to kill mosquitoes, not humans.”

The NGT was hearing an application sent via mail to the NGT by one Dr Jai Kumar, a neurologist and director of the Primary Stroke Centre at Baylor Hospital in Texas.

Dr. Kumar had contended that spraying of pesticides on planes with chemicals like phenothrin, an organo-phosphorus neurotoxin, was injurious to human health as their use carries risk of causing cancer and auto-immune diseases like lupus, Parkinson’s disease and memory loss.

You are to kill mosquitoes, not humans

The airlines said “such activity of spraying disinfectant would be carried out only when the aircraft is empty at the appropriate time”