LONG-HAUL air travel does increase the chance of a person suffering from deep vein thrombosis (DVT) but the risk of dying in a car remains 100 times greater, a recent Australian study reports. According to Airwise.com quoting Reuters, the report showed that normally healthy people were at very low risk of DVT after long-haul flights while passengers with conditions such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, cancer or who are pregnant, would be at slightly greater risk. “For an average middle-aged traveller, this means DVT would occur only once in 40000 flights, with a death about once in two million flights,” the report said. “For young people the average risk would be much smaller.” During recent court action victims have blamed cramped aircraft cabins for their blood clots and argued that airlines have known of the risks for years but failed to warn people. But a British court agreed with the airlines which claimed DVT was not an accident so if a passenger was struck down with the condition on a routine flight the carrier could not be blamed.
