No, chemtrails didn’t make people sick during the eclipse. They don’t exist. | Fact check
The claim: A ‘massive amount’ of chemtrails on April 8 caused numerous people to get sick
An April 8 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) questions whether conditions surrounding the solar eclipse brought on widespread illness.
“Numerous people are reporting getting nauseated and having other strange symptoms after the eclipse today,” the post reads. “Also, the skies everywhere where (sic) thick with MASSIVE amounts of chemtrails. More than I’ve ever seen. I have to think these two things are related. Thoughts?”
The post’s caption asks if anyone knows why there were so many chemtrails: “Was it because the people doing this knew everyone was gonna be outside today and wanted to dose us with something?”
The post was liked more than 2,000 times in a week.
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Our rating: False
There was an increase in flights during the eclipse, but airplanes leave behind condensation trails, not chemtrails. Chemtrails are not real. Experts confirmed neither contrails nor the eclipse itself cause illness.
Increased air traffic on April 8 was expected, FAA says
Several airlines offered special eclipse flights for passengers to view the phenomenon from the sky, contributing to a higher-than-normal number of flights on April 8, CNBC News reported.
Flight traffic increased as expected because of the eclipse, Crystal Essiaw, a spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration, told USA TODAY. The FAA estimates there were 49,628 flights on April 8, Essiaw said, about 4,000 more than the day before and nearly 2,000 more than the day after.
“April 8 ranked among our top 10 days for flights this year,” Essiaw said.
But none of the airplanes that day emitted chemtrails, because chemtrails aren’t real.
USA TODAY has previously debunked the chemtrail conspiracy theory, which claims the white streaks left in the sky from a plane are actually chemicals used to poison the population, combat climate change or control the climate altogether.
Those white streaks are just condensation trails, or contrails. They are formed “when hot humid air from jet exhaust mixes with environmental air of low vapor pressure and low temperature,” according to the National Weather Service.
Fact check: Image of explosions in Israeli sky is from 2020, not 2024 Iran attack
Scientific evidence does not support ‘eclipse sickness’
The Instagram post’s screenshot includes a news headline questioning if there is such a thing as “eclipse sickness.” People claimed on social media to have felt various symptoms because of the eclipse, but medical experts told USA TODAY there’s nothing credible to back that up. There were no credible reports of widespread illness after the eclipse.
“There is no scientific evidence linking the solar eclipse to any sort of significant illness or condition,” said Dr. Jennifer Wider, a women’s health expert.
Wider said most experts would point to the cause of illness being “superstition mixed with a bit of hypochondriasis.”
Dr. Nicholas Kman, a clinical professor of emergency medicine at Ohio State University, told USA TODAY that in his region at least, there was no spike in emergency room visits.
“In central Ohio, we were on the fringe of totality,” he said.
Wider and Kman both said people may have experienced headaches from eye strain caused by staring at the eclipse, which could have caused nausea. But beyond that, correlation does not equal causation.
“There’s, you know, kind of a constellation of things that come together, but the solar eclipse itself is not causing these things, in the same way that the sun and the moon are in the sky all the time and it doesn’t make us sick,” Kman said.
NASA also addressed the notion of eclipse sickness on its website, saying, “There is no physical relationship between a total solar eclipse and your health, any more than there is a relationship between your health and a new moon.”
USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
PolitiFact also debunked a similar claim.
Our fact-check sources:
- Crystal Essiaw, April 15, Email exchange with USA TODAY
- Dr. Jennifer Wider, April 15, Email exchange with USA TODAY
- Dr. NicholasKman, April 16, Phone interview with USA TODAY
- Federal Aviation Administration, March 14, FAA General Statements
- Center for Science Education, accessed April 16, Contrails
- National Weather Service, accessed April 17, Clouds and Contrails
- CNBC, April 8, Eclipse flights swarm airports: ‘We had to close the runway to park planes’
- Fox News, April 8, Can a total solar eclipse make you sick? Experts weigh in on ‘eclipse sickness’ claims
- NASA, accessed April 15, Eclipse: Misconceptions
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