Between 1978 and 1985 I spent a number of hours in a Learjet 24 and a B25J Mitchell fitted with 8 perf movie cameras and thousands of feet of 35 m/m Kodak colour film. Most of the flying was around large cu-nim clouds spitting many bolts of lightning. If undeveloped sensitive colour film is exposed to even the mildest of X-rays [ie airport security devices] the film is ruined. So film is Never put through such devices and if it has to be examined then it is done in a light tight room with the camera assistant and security person groping in the dark!
On every flight and using probably 200,000 feet of Kodak stock carried/exposed, not one frame was ever affected by any spurious radiation.
In this increasingly technical world, technology itself seems to whip up a frenzy of Health and Safety overkill.
Jane-DoH asks about the possibility of severe thunderstorms causing cancer in active areas.
Many years ago leukemia seemed to affect more people near a UK Nuclear Power Plant. Then a massive study found similar clusters in non Nuclear Plant areas. Technology, the Media scare stories and panic mongers had a field day until reality won through.
Like the madness of so called Anthropogenic Global Warming Climate Control someone will probably suggest we can subdue lightning strikes to thereby reduce cancer stats.