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Dehydration risk on aeroplanes

The new ban on air travellers carrying any liquids with them when they board a flight carries a threat of dehydration for some people with medical conditions, the Associated Press reports.

As a result, the wire service reports, at least one airline – the US Airline Delta - is adding extra supplies of bottled water on board. Water, soda and nutritional drinks are banned from being brought aboard a plane under the new regulations implemented after British law enforcement officials arrested a number of men in connection with a plot that would have involved mixing liquids to make a bomb.

The possibility of dehydration does pose a problem for some people who need to keep their body chemistry constantly in balance. "Some people can't eat ordinary airline food," the AP quotes Dr David Freedman of the University of Alabama at Birmingham as saying. Freedman noted the problems faced by people who rely on Ensure and other over-the-counter nutritional supplement drinks, which have been banned.

Dehydration can pose some dangers, Dr Marc Siegel, an internal medicine physician with the New York University School of Medicine, told the wire service. It is especially dangerous for those with diseased hearts or kidneys, he said. "Though I'm not calling this life-threatening, dehydration is not a good state for anyone ill to be in," Siegel is quoted as saying. – (HealthDayNews)

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Travel health Centre

August 2006

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