For many air travelers, the worst part of airline travel is the air quality. One of their biggest fears is getting sick from air travel. Airplanes are confined spaces that are known for poor onboard air circulation. While waiting to take off, passengers are exposed to any number of air contaminants including ozone, gas fumes, chemical cleaners, and pesticides used on airplanes.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, writer Scott McCartney states that a year ago, a blue-ribbon panel of experts across the aviation industry recommended voluntary standards for onboard air circulation, lower ozone exposure, new monitoring for contaminated air from oil or hydraulic fluid leaks, and limits on pesticides used on planes.

According to McCartney, airline companies and aviation industry experts have yet to take any action to improve air quality or meet these voluntary standards.

More than a decade ago, the aviation industry asked the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers to form a panel to investigate air quality inside airliner—long a topic of concern for travelers and flight crews, particularly during health crises like the H1N1 swine flu pandemic.

Byron W. Jones, the committee’s chair and associate dean at the College of Engineering at Kansas State University says, “In general the air on an airplane is not too bad, but when things go wrong, they can get really bad. And it happens in a hurry.” Dr. Jones and other committee members describe the response from regulators to the new standards as “fairly muted” so far.

It seems that for now passengers are on their own when it comes to improving the air quality on airplanes. For the proactive traveler, we carry a personal filter for airplane use that may help some travelers improve air quality and prevent them from getting sick.