Originally Posted by
T-Vasis
Empirically validated studies and research that infer causality which you can digest yourself. Purchase access to various journals and you can read the published papers. I don’t speak to the QF pilot population - I speak to all the population. I have spent countless hours performing my own meta-analysis on the research and there are many peer-reviewed papers on the implications of circadian disruption and cosmic radiation to name a few. Just going through body scanners is doing you harm. Ionizing radiation is damaging your DNA, and the cumulative effects are problematic. I always refuse the scanner and I once had a poorly informed TSA agent tell me that the dosage is no different to ‘what I experience when flying’. My simple response to him was ‘why double my exposure’.
Just one night of no sleep is shown to increase levels of beta-amyloid in the brain which is correlated to Alzheimer’s and other cognitive degeneration. Without the required time and required phases of deep restorative sleep to activate the flow of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain so these harmful waste proteins can be cleared away - your risk factors go way up. So image the implication of shift work and / or broken sleep that pilots suffer in the course of their careers.
And this is the tip of the iceberg - the other factors of poor nutritional outcomes, mental health issues, increased risk of obesity and cardiovascular disease. And it is a normal distribution. There are populations that degenerate faster, and there are populations that degenerate slower (like your 96 year old mate) - because there are many more variables that either contribute to, or mitigate, internally and externally.
The data is there. The reality is that for the majority - you will likely suffer earlier mortality, and associated health consequences. The question is whether this is an acceptable comprise to do what you may love so much. But for me - I’d be doing all I can to get better health outcomes in your enterprise agreement.
Precisely.
Naturally airline management would comfortably release sick leave (long duration) and ailments in order to rebut the the science with their significant sample.
This is the tip of the iceberg, airlines know full well that the work life balance and in particular circadian rhythm disturbance and time zone displacement results in pilots and cabin crew having significantly higher occurrence of certain illnesses.
Three flights are not statistically sufficient as a sample, nor will there be any repeat long term observation of test subjects to ascertain/map health outcomes.
Little Napoleon will bully, when by law he has a duty of care to his employees. He sits on a treasure trove of sickness data, conveniently ignored.