Heather Poole

  • Heather Poole Interview with The BBC Radio Show The Conversation

    Heather Poole Interview with The BBC Radio Show The Conversation

      The Conversation – a BBC World Service radio show that brings together two women from different parts of the world to talk about a shared experience – interviewed me about what it’s like to be a flight attendant and how things have changed over the years in the airline industry since…

  • Things I’ve Learned Shopping for Second Hand Clothes

    Things I’ve Learned Shopping for Second Hand Clothes

    Before September 2016, I didn’t think that much about fashion. I enjoyed looking nice, but I didn’t do a lot of shopping because I didn’t have the money to shop.  But that was OK because I spent most of my time at work wearing a uniform. That’s one of the…

  • Americans Don’t Care About Safety

    Americans Don’t Care About Safety

    If it’s not a Boeing, I’m not going. That’s a phrase I’ve heard often over the course of my 20-plus career as a flight attendant for a major U.S. carrier. Even I may have uttered the phrase a few times after my airline replaced the Boeing 767 with the new…

  • Crematories & “Safe” Chemicals

    Crematories & “Safe” Chemicals

    What does Bill Clinton’s sex life have in common with dead people? I’ll get to that in a moment. First, a little bit about me. I’m like Pavlov’s dog when it comes to the word “safe,” except that instead of drooling when I hear it, I start googling. That’s because…

  • Wake Up and Smell the Formaldehyde

    Wake Up and Smell the Formaldehyde

    There’s a school that suspends kids for wearing deodorant,” said my 12-year-old son on the way to school one morning. “It was on a YouTube video about the top 10 stupid reasons kids get kicked out of school.” After I told him my top 10 reasons he shouldn’t believe everything…

  • Airlines Slow to Respond to Health and Safety Standards for Flight Attendants

    Airlines Slow to Respond to Health and Safety Standards for Flight Attendants

    Initially, the Harvard Flight Attendant Health Study set out to learn how flame retardants in the home affect the endocrine system. Who better to study than people overexposed to flame retardants? Airplanes are covered in flame retardant. Enter flight attendants. Harvard teamed up with the Association of Flight Attendantsunion (AFA) and…

  • Dear Kamala Harris, Our Airline Uniform Made Us Sick

    Dear Kamala Harris, Our Airline Uniform Made Us Sick

    Dear Kamala Harris, I’d like to say thank you. Thank you for caring about people, all people, regardless of race, age, gender, social status or sexual preference. Thank you for standing up and fighting to make this world a better place by shedding light on a serious problem we have…

  • Harvard Links Chemicals in Clothing to Flight Attendant Health Complaints

    To those who’ve been following the uniform crisis over the last year, I want to say thank you for your support.  You’ll never know how much it means to me and thousands of other American Airlines employees.  Some of you have asked how you can help.  Making people aware of…

  • Welcome to the Club Nobody Wants to Join

    Welcome to the Club Nobody Wants to Join

    Welcome to the club nobody wants to be a part of. That’s how we greet newbies who join our support group for American Airlines employees who’ve had reactions to toxic chemicals in the new uniform. As of Jan. 1, 2018, there are 9,688 members in our private Facebook group. Since the new uniform rolled out on…

  • Brace Yourself: In Defense of “Hysterical” Flight Attendants

    Brace Yourself: In Defense of “Hysterical” Flight Attendants

    An AirAsia plane “plummeted” from the sky, and in every news report I read, passengers complained that flight attendants panicked. I’ve been a flight attendant for over 20 years. I have a hard time believing the crew panicked. They may have looked shocked, but panicked? Define panicked. One passenger told Seven…