LONDON (Reuters) - Air passengers' health is being put at risk on commercial flights as airlines reduce air quality to cut costs, according to a report published on Tuesday.

British consumer rights magazine Holiday Which? said passengers face dangers from recycled cabin air that can carry airborne diseases and dangerous engine fumes.

Airlines and the aviation industry said the report was guilty of "scaremongering," but Holiday Which? said it highlighted the need for more research.

"The failure of the airline industry to respond to repeated warnings around the world...doesn't give travellers much faith that their health is being sufficiently looked after," Patricia Yates, editor of Holiday Which?, said in a statement.

The report said that some pilots reduce the flow of fresh air into cabins to save fuel, a claim regularly denied by airlines.

Dry, recycled air can increase the chance of people picking up airborne diseases, including tuberculosis, the report said.

It said there were no minimum standards in the UK for air filters and no regulations for humidity and temperature.

The magazine said other problems included low cabin pressure, which can lead to problems for pregnant women, the elderly or people with heart disease.

The British Air Transport Association, the industry body for UK airlines, said passengers were not being put at risk.

"It is absolute nonsense," BATA's secretary general Roger Wiltshire told Reuters. "This is scaremongering stuff which has no basis in science or fact."

BATA said that recycling half the cabin air helps to keep up humidity levels.

British Airways said a recent parliamentary investigation had found air travel posed no significant risk to health.

"A number of independent studies have shown that there is no link between cabin air quality and health complaints," BA said in a statement.

The Civil Aviation Authority, the UK's aviation regulator, said airlines had to meet strict regulations on cabin air quality and pressure.

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