Helipad fumes

[sassyann85]

On the floor I work on, the Helipad for life flight is right on the roof outside the building. It doesn't happen every day, but often we can smell fumes from the helicopter diesel. Staff has gotten headaches and even patients have complained. The smell lasts for a few hours. I work part time (three 8 hour shifts/week) and I'd say every 6th or so shift I can smell this. The main concern I have right now is that I am pregnant. Could this be harmful to my pregnancy? The smell hasn't caused me to get a headache or become nauseous. Of note, staff has complained about the smell for years and apparently nothing has been done.

How would you handle this? I work on a specialized unit, so I can't really just go work on another floor until I have the baby. Would you worry?

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

I would call your OB and see what they think vs asking strangers.

[BSNbeauty, BSN, RN]

We cannot give you any medical advice per TOS. Talk to your OB

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

As others have said, talk to your OB.

On a side note, in the ED we always have the fumes from ambulances "wafting" in to the department. Unless presented with an easy solution, I'm guessing your facility is not going to do something about unless something really bad happens.

[rotorwife67]

Jet fuel is basically the same thing as Diesel that cars use. The only difference is that the Jet fuel doesn't have all the lubricants in it. I would think that nobody would want to smell the exhaust from a car or truck any more than they would want to smell the exhaust from a helicopter. All of it is considered a carcinogen but unless we move to an island in the middle of the ocean I doubt there is much we can do about it. The downfalls of living in a modern world!

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

Jet A is basically a refined Kerosene and not Diesel. They're different fuels. It's easy to tell them apart from the exhaust odor...

For the most part, I think Jet A is a preferable odor than Diesel or Gasoline (no cat converter) odors.

As far as getting rid of those odors, about the only way that I know of would be installing some kind of filter in the AC system that feeds your floor... but unless the floor is hermetically sealed, there's no 100% foolproof method to really block the fumes/odor from reaching the interior. The AC filter would cut down the odor by quite a bit though, if that's how the stuff primarily gets in.

[rotorwife67]

Thats what I meant by saying it was basically the same as diesel without the lubricants. Diesel is 75% kerosene but it also has added lubricants and a lower sulfer content. That's why they smell different because the lubricants in true diesel burn dirtier than the jet fuel. I wouldn't want to huff either one...especially if I were pregnant.

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

Thats what I meant by saying it was basically the same as diesel without the lubricants. Diesel is 75% kerosene but it also has added lubricants and a lower sulfer content. That's why they smell different because the lubricants in true diesel burn dirtier than the jet fuel. I wouldn't want to huff either one...especially if I were pregnant.

The two fuels are different but related. During the refining process, Diesel and Kerosene are extracted at different points (and temperatures) and their resulting BTU ratings are also a bit different. Diesel has a higher amount of paraffin in it than Kerosene does because of where it's extracted in the refining process. Their flash point and vapor points are also different. They're different fuels. Engines designed to run Jet A or JP-4/JP-8 can run Diesel but may have problems starting and/or burning cleanly when/if they do.

I do know that my uniform always had a very distinct odor for several hours after assisting with a hot offload.