Determination of Tricresyl Phosphate Air Contamination in Aircraft

aircraft]. The aircraft had a previous history of pilot complaints about cockpit air contamina-tion suspected to originate from the engine bleed air supply through the entry of aircraft tur-bine engine oil (ATO) into the engine compressor. Air samples were collected in flight and on the ground during engine runs using sorbent tubes packed with Porapak Q and cellulose fil-ters. A total of 78 air samples were analysed, from 46 different aircraft, and 48 samples were found to be below the limit of detection. Nine incidents of smoke/odour were identified during the study. The concentrations of toxic o-cresyl phosphate isomers were below the level of de-tection in all samples. The highest total TCP concentration was 51.3 mg m23, while most were generally found to be <5 mg m23 compared with the 8-h time-weighted average exposure limit of 100 mg m23 for tri-o-cresyl phosphate. The highest concentrations were found at high en-gine power. Although TCP contamination of cabin/cockpit air has been the subject of much concern in aviation, quantitative data are sparse