Scientific findings and legal decisions are adding momentum to the fight against occupational cancers and other diseases among aviation workers. For ground staff and aircrew alike, the message is increasingly clear: choosing a career in aviation must not come at the cost of workers’ health.
Air pollution remains one of the most serious occupational health risks facing aviation workers. On airport aprons, ground staff are repeatedly exposed to aircraft engine exhaust, diesel emissions and ultrafine particles. In aircraft cabins, crew members face another overlapping combination of hazards, including toxic bleed air.
Three recent developments are now increasing pressure on employers and public authorities to act in protection of these workers.
Kerosene engine exhaust recognised as a carcinogenic threat
In July 2026, the Health Council of the Netherlands, working with the Nordic Expert Group, published a major scientific assessment of kerosene engine exhaust.
The expert bodies recommended that kerosene engine exhaust be classified as presumed to be carcinogenic to humans, category 1B, as well as suspected of causing genetic mutations. Their assessment points to the presence of ultrafine particles and several hazardous substances in aircraft exhaust, as well as important similarities with diesel engine exhaust, which is already recognised as carcinogenic.
This finding is particularly important for workers operating close to aircraft, including baggage handlers, ramp workers, aircraft technicians, refuelling staff and those assisting passengers on the apron.
Employers must now minimise exposure and apply existing protections for the dangerous substances found within the exhaust mixture.
Schiphol shows that measures can be imposed
The situation at Schiphol Airport demonstrates what this can mean in practice. Following union actions, the Netherlands Labour Inspectorate required the airport and employers to take measures to minimise workers’ exposure.
These include reducing aircraft-engine use near workers, limiting the use of auxiliary power units and changing procedures so that aircraft can be moved further from the gate before starting their engines.
The Inspectorate’s decision shows the types of obligations that can be placed on airports, airlines, ground handling companies and other employers.
The 2021 documentary Schiphol Airport’s Toxic Secret also presents the experiences of workers and the long campaign to expose the risks they face.
A breakthrough for cabin crew in France
And ground staff is not alone in facing accumulated occupational health risks.
A recent French court ruling recognised former Air France cabin crew member Sophie Lainault’s breast cancer as an occupational disease. The court considered the combination of occupational exposures she experienced during a career spanning three decades, including extensive night work, cosmic ionising radiation and passive exposure to tobacco smoke during the years when smoking was permitted on board.
The case is significant because it recognises the importance of multiple and accumulated occupational exposures, rather than requiring a worker’s illness to be attributed to one isolated risk.
Read more about the case and its wider implications in our previous article.
Now: Europe must turn evidence into protection
These developments concern different groups of aviation workers and different types of exposure, but they point towards the same conclusion: the health risks are real, they accumulate over time and they require preventive action.
ETF calls on national governments to recognise the dangers associated with kerosene engine exhaust and to ensure that employers apply the highest standards of prevention. This must include eliminating or reducing emissions at source, reorganising work to keep workers away from pollution and providing appropriate health surveillance.
National authorities should also work towards a harmonised European classification of kerosene engine exhaust. A harmonised classification would support consistent recognition of the danger and stronger protection for workers across Europe, rather than leaving safety dependent on the country or airport in which a person works.
Employers and public authorities must also recognise the combined effect of the multiple hazards experienced by cabin crew and ground staff throughout their working lives. Occupational illnesses cannot always be understood by considering each hazardous exposure separately.
Choosing aviation for your job must not mean contracting severe, sometimes deadly diseases. All evidence is there. Now we need action!
