Narrative:

It was still well before sunrise and the outside air temperature was -32C. When we arrived at the aircraft; we found it to be on ground service bus and 'warm' (probably no more than 0-5c; but due to the temperature differential; it was comfortable). We also found that the cabin of the aircraft smelled strongly of diesel exhaust and the cabin air was hazy when looking from one end of the aircraft to another. This apparently was because of poor positioning of the (ground) air cart such that the exhaust from the diesel power supply was sucked into the air conditioning intake of the heating cart and subsequently pumped into the aircraft as well as warm air. In contacting several gse (ground service equipment) manufacturers after this incident; I discovered that; unlike passenger vehicles; diesel engines on gse is not equipped with any catalytic converter devices to process exhaust and reduce pollutants such as carbon monoxide. We did not know this at the time. We thought that the smell was just a nuisance and would be cleared in several minutes once I got the APU started. Due to the extreme cold; the aircraft had been attached to an external heat cart since its arrival the night before and had been serviced by the unit for approximately six hours. The aircraft powered up almost normally; however; I received a spurious EICAS message 'brk ctrl fault'. I proceeded to the power reset procedure in the QRH and powered down the aircraft with restart after letting the aircraft rest for approximately five minutes. After the second power up process; the aircraft was powered up with no EICAS messages and we boarded for deicing and departure. For the entire time I had the APU available to provide ventilation to the aircraft; I had the recirculation fans off in an attempt to ventilate as much exhaust odor as possible from the aircraft. For the first 20 minutes we were on the aircraft; the external air cart was connected to the aircraft as well as ground power. It was not until after this time that we were able to get ventilation provided solely by the APU and free from ground heating cart exhaust fumes. During the boarding process; I remarked to the first officer that the smell was making me feel a little dizzy so despite the bitter cold; I opened the cabin window and tried to breathe outside air. I wasn't able to do this for long; as it was just too painfully cold. While we were waiting for deicing; the first officer and I decided that the fumes couldn't have been healthy for us so we took several minutes to breathe pure oxygen from the cockpit oxygen masks. Before taxiing for departure; we both decided that we felt sufficiently normal that we could continue to operate the flight safely; in our opinions. The odor of diesel exhaust took all of the time spent deicing as well as a good portion into the flight to entirely clear from the cabin although the cockpit had clean air to breathe shortly before takeoff and during all of the flight. Fourteen hours later; when we arrived at our layover station; I discovered that the flight attendants had complained of headaches earlier in the day and one of the flight attendants told me that she vomited during that first flight. I asked them why they didn't report this to me earlier in the day and they told me that they felt that at the time the malaise might have been due to being up too early; too cold; or eating bad food. They didn't think that it might have been related to the odor exposure before departure. Thirty-six hours later; I was subjected to a random drug test upon arrival at our home domicile. After I had completed providing a urine sample; I noticed that the clinic had a large bottle of urine test strips available and on a lark; I asked the medical technologist if she would mind if I dipped my urine. My intention had been to see what my glucose levels were. I was very surprised to discover that my urine had evidence of blood in it and the value for bilirubin excretionwas off the chart in the high amount. After my trip; I made arrangements to speak about this with my primary care physician. I met up with my primary care physician 72 hours after the exposure and repeated the urine test; which revealed normal values. After discussing the situation with him; he advised me that it was likely that I had been exposed to and poisoned by carbon monoxide in the airplane cabin due to the problem with the heating unit. The carbon monoxide exposure was a probable cause of the high levels of bilirubin that were revealed during my urine test. He said that it was probable that the exposure to carbon monoxide was significant and normally; treatment would have consisted of at least four hours of breathing pure oxygen; not the several minutes we self-medicated ourselves with before our departure. He also stated that due to the nature of carbon monoxide poisoning; we could not have known the extent of any impairment although the fact that we did feel some symptoms and one of the flight attendants vomited meant that the level of co in the cabin was almost certainly high enough to cause harm to anyone breathing that air for even 15-20 minutes; as we did. I was unaware that gse didn't have catalytic converters. Had I known that the cabin air could have contained carbon monoxide; I would have prohibited my crew from occupying the aircraft and would have insisted that the doors be opened and the cabin ventilated with outside air. We never expect that going to work and following protocol would expose us to something that can potentially harm us. We certainly never expect that such harm would lead us to potentially operating an aircraft while impaired. I would recommend that three lessons come from our exposure incident: 1. Due to the fact that gse is never equipped with catalytic converters; guidance to crews be given that if any exhaust smell is present in the cabin from a gpu or air conditioning unit; that the assumption should be made that it contains carbon monoxide and the aircraft should not be occupied until the smell of exhaust is removed and the aircraft is ventilated with fresh air for a significant period of time. 2. That co detectors be bought for outstations and placed in an aircraft being serviced overnight by gse that is not electrically powered. 3. That procedures be reviewed so that ground crews are aware of the wind and the positioning of such gse so that the likelihood of the machine 'breathing' its own exhaust should be minimized.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMB-175 flight and cabin crews; as well as their passengers are allegedly exposed to significant levels of carbon monoxide due to the ingestion of Ground Support Equipment exhaust over an extended period of time. A coincidental urine test taken during a random drug test 36 hours after the exposure revealed abnormal results that a physician says may be linked to exposure to carbon monoxide.

Narrative: It was still well before sunrise and the outside air temperature was -32C. When we arrived at the aircraft; we found it to be on ground service bus and 'warm' (probably no more than 0-5C; but due to the temperature differential; it was comfortable). We also found that the cabin of the aircraft smelled strongly of diesel exhaust and the cabin air was hazy when looking from one end of the aircraft to another. This apparently was because of poor positioning of the (ground) air cart such that the exhaust from the diesel power supply was sucked into the air conditioning intake of the heating cart and subsequently pumped into the aircraft as well as warm air. In contacting several GSE (Ground Service Equipment) manufacturers after this incident; I discovered that; unlike passenger vehicles; diesel engines on GSE is not equipped with any catalytic converter devices to process exhaust and reduce pollutants such as Carbon Monoxide. We did not know this at the time. We thought that the smell was just a nuisance and would be cleared in several minutes once I got the APU started. Due to the extreme cold; the aircraft had been attached to an external heat cart since its arrival the night before and had been serviced by the unit for approximately six hours. The aircraft powered up almost normally; however; I received a spurious EICAS message 'brk ctrl fault'. I proceeded to the power reset procedure in the QRH and powered down the aircraft with restart after letting the aircraft rest for approximately five minutes. After the second power up process; the aircraft was powered up with no EICAS messages and we boarded for deicing and departure. For the entire time I had the APU available to provide ventilation to the aircraft; I had the recirculation fans off in an attempt to ventilate as much exhaust odor as possible from the aircraft. For the first 20 minutes we were on the aircraft; the external air cart was connected to the aircraft as well as ground power. It was not until after this time that we were able to get ventilation provided solely by the APU and free from ground heating cart exhaust fumes. During the boarding process; I remarked to the First Officer that the smell was making me feel a little dizzy so despite the bitter cold; I opened the cabin window and tried to breathe outside air. I wasn't able to do this for long; as it was just too painfully cold. While we were waiting for deicing; the First Officer and I decided that the fumes couldn't have been healthy for us so we took several minutes to breathe pure oxygen from the cockpit oxygen masks. Before taxiing for departure; we both decided that we felt sufficiently normal that we could continue to operate the flight safely; in our opinions. The odor of diesel exhaust took all of the time spent deicing as well as a good portion into the flight to entirely clear from the cabin although the cockpit had clean air to breathe shortly before takeoff and during all of the flight. Fourteen hours later; when we arrived at our layover station; I discovered that the flight attendants had complained of headaches earlier in the day and one of the flight attendants told me that she vomited during that first flight. I asked them why they didn't report this to me earlier in the day and they told me that they felt that at the time the malaise might have been due to being up too early; too cold; or eating bad food. They didn't think that it might have been related to the odor exposure before departure. Thirty-six hours later; I was subjected to a random drug test upon arrival at our home domicile. After I had completed providing a urine sample; I noticed that the clinic had a large bottle of urine test strips available and on a lark; I asked the medical technologist if she would mind if I dipped my urine. My intention had been to see what my glucose levels were. I was very surprised to discover that my urine had evidence of blood in it and the value for bilirubin excretionwas off the chart in the high amount. After my trip; I made arrangements to speak about this with my primary care physician. I met up with my primary care physician 72 hours after the exposure and repeated the urine test; which revealed normal values. After discussing the situation with him; he advised me that it was likely that I had been exposed to and poisoned by Carbon Monoxide in the airplane cabin due to the problem with the heating unit. The carbon monoxide exposure was a probable cause of the high levels of bilirubin that were revealed during my urine test. He said that it was probable that the exposure to carbon monoxide was significant and normally; treatment would have consisted of at least four hours of breathing pure oxygen; not the several minutes we self-medicated ourselves with before our departure. He also stated that due to the nature of carbon monoxide poisoning; we could not have known the extent of any impairment although the fact that we did feel some symptoms and one of the flight attendants vomited meant that the level of CO in the cabin was almost certainly high enough to cause harm to anyone breathing that air for even 15-20 minutes; as we did. I was unaware that GSE didn't have catalytic converters. Had I known that the cabin air could have contained carbon monoxide; I would have prohibited my crew from occupying the aircraft and would have insisted that the doors be opened and the cabin ventilated with outside air. We never expect that going to work and following protocol would expose us to something that can potentially harm us. We certainly never expect that such harm would lead us to potentially operating an aircraft while impaired. I would recommend that three lessons come from our exposure incident: 1. Due to the fact that GSE is never equipped with catalytic converters; guidance to crews be given that if ANY exhaust smell is present in the cabin from a GPU or air conditioning unit; that the assumption should be made that it contains carbon monoxide and the aircraft should not be occupied until the smell of exhaust is removed and the aircraft is ventilated with fresh air for a significant period of time. 2. That CO detectors be bought for outstations and placed in an aircraft being serviced overnight by GSE that is not electrically powered. 3. That procedures be reviewed so that ground crews are aware of the wind and the positioning of such GSE so that the likelihood of the machine 'breathing' its own exhaust should be minimized.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.