This article is a commentary on the following study: Tunnicliffe WS, O'Hickey SP, Fletcher TJ, Miles JF, Burge PS, Ayres JG. Pulmonary function and respiratory symptoms in a population of airport workers. Occup Environ Med. 1999 Feb;56(2):118-23. This study was prompted by complaints from asthmatic patients living near Birmingham International Airport (United Kingdom). The authors then hypothesized that these complaints might be related to an exacerbation of respiratory symptoms caused by exposure to aircraft fuels or exhaust fumes (jet stream) and tested this hypothesis through a cross-sectional study among airport staff. This is therefore primarily an exploratory study whose merit lies in suggesting that occupational exposure to pollutants present in fuels could be responsible for effects on the respiratory system of exposed workers. These results warrant further investigation. (Excerpt from the article).