Flapsfull
7th Jul 2000, 11:26
According to Swedish newspaper GP there is a 2 to 3 times increase in the risk of getting skin cancer for flight crew.
11000 pilots and 20000 cabin crew from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Finland
have been monitored in the study. The female stewardesses also double the chance of aquiring breast cancer.
The study still needs more cases to study, before it can be scientifically verified.
The cause of this increased risk has yet to be determined, but the suspiscion so far is the cosmic radiation that the crews are
exposed to when flying above 10000 M, approx. FL330. It also seems that you receive more radiation when flying on more northerly latitudes.
The scientists calculate that you receive 0,003 millisieverts per hour on a typical Atlantic crossing. That would add up to a lifetime exposure of 30 millisieverts, based on 10000 hrs of flying. Or, based on 600 hrs a year, your exposure reach such levels that if you were receiving this amount of radiation from working on the ground, there
would be quite rigorous regulations to be adhered to. There are no such regulations for flight crew..... at least not in Sweden. Yet.
The report also mentions that the lifestyle of certain flight crew, with lay-overs at warm destinations might expose them to more sunshine, which could be a contributing factor.
Final results from the Swedish part of the study are expected later this summer.
Anyone heard about the study that Lufthansa crew are taking part in? Mentioned in Flight In´tl earlier this year.
Will we be cruising around at FL290 from now on?
11000 pilots and 20000 cabin crew from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Finland
have been monitored in the study. The female stewardesses also double the chance of aquiring breast cancer.
The study still needs more cases to study, before it can be scientifically verified.
The cause of this increased risk has yet to be determined, but the suspiscion so far is the cosmic radiation that the crews are
exposed to when flying above 10000 M, approx. FL330. It also seems that you receive more radiation when flying on more northerly latitudes.
The scientists calculate that you receive 0,003 millisieverts per hour on a typical Atlantic crossing. That would add up to a lifetime exposure of 30 millisieverts, based on 10000 hrs of flying. Or, based on 600 hrs a year, your exposure reach such levels that if you were receiving this amount of radiation from working on the ground, there
would be quite rigorous regulations to be adhered to. There are no such regulations for flight crew..... at least not in Sweden. Yet.
The report also mentions that the lifestyle of certain flight crew, with lay-overs at warm destinations might expose them to more sunshine, which could be a contributing factor.
Final results from the Swedish part of the study are expected later this summer.
Anyone heard about the study that Lufthansa crew are taking part in? Mentioned in Flight In´tl earlier this year.
Will we be cruising around at FL290 from now on?