Holding it in is unhealthy. Letting it go is problematic. What to do?

by Tara Haelle

When I was in fifth grade, I let one rip that was so loud it actually echoed in the library. My four startled friends, who were all researching the Transcontinental Railroad with me for a research project, immediately escaped the room and then, a few minutes later, one peeked from behind the library door from the hallway to ask, “Is it safe?”

Fortunately, I had a good sense of humor and these were good friends. They weren’t bullying, and they were probably at least somewhat seriously wanting to know if they could re-enter the library without gagging.

But what’s interesting to note is that my friend’s teasing question is actually a potentially real one worth asking in some situations. That is to say, sometimes the consequences of farting matter. Like in an airplane. At least, a handful of New Zealand doctors thought the issue of farting on airplanes was important enough to publish a peer-reviewed paper on it in the Journal Of the New Zealand Medical Association.

Now, a couple of caveats. First, I’ve lived with Kiwis (New Zealanders) and spent some time in that lovely little country down under, and few nationalities appreciate fun and bawdy humor like the Kiwis. I have my suspicions, especially given some of the language and sentences in the paper (yes, they use the word “fart” – many times), that these authors were really just looking for an excuse to write authoritatively about farts. Silly boys.

Secondly, I’m a science and health writer, but my weakest area is the physical sciences. Therefore I cannot adequately evaluate whether the first source referenced in the paper – a 1969 study alluding to the potential of farts to cause explosions during space exploration – or similar concerns they mention related to pressure changes and/or the chemical makeup of flatus (farts) are legitimate concerns, today or in years past.

But what does make me qualified to write about this study, other than my health reporting experience, are the following facts: I fart a lot (or so it seems?), and I’m familiar with both the social stigmatization and with the ”physical discomfort” of holding in a fart to avoid such stigmatization that these authors discuss. Oh, and I fly often enough that the first fact might matter to others. In fact, I grew up convinced I farted more than everyone else, yet a couple doctor visits and diet changes had no effect. These days, I’m convinced of something different: I’m just not good at hiding it, or timing it, or holding it in. And those around me are.

So perhaps that is why I was drawn to write about this paper (other than the fact that, obviously, it’s fun to write about farting), because the authors’ advice to fliers is basically to let the farts fly too. Then they spend a good part of the rest of the paper discussing possible interventions that might make that advice less… odious to fellow passengers.

Okay, one fair point worth mentioning is that Kiwis are pretty lonely out there in the Pacific, with only Australia and some Polynesian islands to keep them company as far as close neighbors go. If they want to travel, it usually means really, really long plane rides. So if nothing else, these authors know that of which they speak in one regard: a lot of people crammed into the same relatively small pressurized area with recirculating air for many, many hours can make the reality of farting problematic at times. No, it’s not going to cause any explosions, but at the same time, you can’t exactly roll down the window as you would in a car either.

Consider that the average person, male or female, young or old, releases somewhere between 0.7 to 1 liter of gas a day, usually spread out in 10 to 14 farts in a 24-hour period. And as MythBusters proved, even pretty girls fart. The sulfur-containing gases in that mix of mostly nitrogen and carbon dioxide coming out your derriere can be some seriously noxious stuff, especially depending on what you ate that day. (These authors claim that women’s farts smell worse than men’s, but they base it on this very tiny study that I’d say is way too small to provide evidence for such a broad generalization.)

The doctors then theorize that the ideal gas law means we probably produce a bit more gas in the lower pressure environment of the plane, which is only pressurized to about 565 mmHg, or the equivalent of 8,000 feet. After all, we have to pop our ears, right? Maybe that expanding air in our tummies means… well, you get the idea.

Now here I must stop to quote a section of the paper, verbatim, that discusses the two primary types of farts, whose ramifications the authors then go on to discuss:

“Phonetically, there are roughly two different kinds of flatulence: ‘sneaking a fart’ which is a silent method where the person in a very controlled manner minimises the amount of intestinal gas passed by the anus per time unit, in contrast to a ‘loud fart’ where a large amount of intestinal gas is passed through anus in a short period of time.”

Yes, those are the words of a scientific paper. But they’re right – it’s either silent but deadly or loud and startling. In both cases, letting it go can be socially stigmatizing and quite unpleasant for fellow passengers. (I do think they may be exaggerating a bit when they suggest “Strong odour of flatulence may also impair the level of service from the cabin crew and thereby secondarily impair the QOL (quality of life) while onboard the aircraft.”)

But holding it in can be worse. More than just discomfort, holding in your gas can cause pain, bloating, dyspepsia, heartburn, and other gastrointestinal problems. Plus, holding in a fart can be hard work – it requires concentration. As the authors note, falling asleep, experiencing turbulence, coughing, or sneezing can throw all that effort to the wind.

Even more serious, the authors note that holding in farts has been linked to diverticular disease and that “the physiological responses to distended intestine are elevated blood pressure and pulse, and reduced oxygenation of the blood, which can be serious for people already at risk for cardiovascular complications.” So beans might be good for your heart, but trying to prevent their effects may not be.

So yes, you really ought to go ahead and fart, even on an airplane when you’re beside a stranger who will be your immediate companion for the next 12 hours.

So then we get to the fun part. What do we do about the smell? The authors have a few ideas, some better than others: “One effective solution would be the use of rubber pants with an attached air container for the collection of the gas, however this seems somewhat extreme.” Um, yea, I’d agree that’s taking things a bit too far. Next suggestion: install active charcoal, which can absorb intestinal odors, into airline seats, which already absorb about 50 percent of the odor.

Yet this will only work if the person is wearing permeable clothing. If the passenger is wearing leather (who wears leather pants on a plane besides Billy Idol?!), the authors describe a “tunnel effect, when the fart escapes either by the legs of the trousers or at the waist.” This possibility, plus the fact that people often get up and walk around on the plane, leads the authors to recommend perhaps putting charcoal elsewhere in the plane, such as in blankets. Or underwear – even though “the effectiveness of underwear containing active charcoal may be limited when wearing G-strings or when not wearing underwear at all.”

The most extreme measures they entertain involve giving passengers methane breath tests to divide them into flatulent and non-flatulent flyers, and then provide restrictions for the flatulent flyers. (Can you imagine the do-not-fly list for this, or the discrimination suits that would follow? Those court cases would be more entertaining than Judge Judy and The People’s Court combined.) They even float the idea of passengers purchases “flatus quotas” (a whole new meaning for the word “carbon tax”).

More realistically, and seriously, though, they make the reasonable suggestion that airlines look for ways to reduce the fiber in airline meals as much as possible. And as passengers, it’s certainly fair to ask we each make our own effort to avoid the beans, bran and berries before boarding.

But then the authors immediately go on to suggest passengers wear a “pelvic ring” that would enable them to consistently fart silently. In theory, if they’re wearing charcoal-lined underwear and sitting on a charcoal seat, no one will be the wiser. Um…

Seriously, folks, what this paper accomplishes brilliantly is to point out two really important things. One, we all fart, it’s a natural, human thing, and it’s healthier to let it out. Two, if you bend over backwards trying to figure out ways to get around this biological fact, it just gets silly.

Photo of plane by Noel Abejo. No farting sign image by Goker Can Yilmaz. Two images of surprised women are courtesy of Microsoft Images.