Skin cancer among pilots
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Skin cancer among pilots
Hi all!
Take a look at this... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6320405.stm
In summary, new research shows that people who spend a lot of time driving have increased chances of skin cancer. The windows block out most of the UVB (causes sunburn) but don't block UVA (penetrates deeper). This in turn causes skin cancer on the "window side" of the body.
I suppose that this is all obvious stuff, but what does it mean for pilots who spend vast ammounts of time high up above the protection of clouds etc?
Take a look at this... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6320405.stm
In summary, new research shows that people who spend a lot of time driving have increased chances of skin cancer. The windows block out most of the UVB (causes sunburn) but don't block UVA (penetrates deeper). This in turn causes skin cancer on the "window side" of the body.
I suppose that this is all obvious stuff, but what does it mean for pilots who spend vast ammounts of time high up above the protection of clouds etc?
Plastic PPRuNer
This is well known. I'd guess that aircraft windows (esp. cockpit windows) block out more UVA that car windows though. Luckily when a young pilot is nicely roasted on one side he usually changes seats so the other side can get done too!
Anyone who spends a lot of time in harsh sunlight, particularly at altitude, is at increased risk (look at the old test pilots who spent years out at Muroc, they all look like Pancho Barnes).
Ramp rats, fuellers and handlers who are out in all weathers are equally at risk.
Moral: Wear a hat and slop on a good sun-protection cream.
Anyone who spends a lot of time in harsh sunlight, particularly at altitude, is at increased risk (look at the old test pilots who spent years out at Muroc, they all look like Pancho Barnes).
Ramp rats, fuellers and handlers who are out in all weathers are equally at risk.
Moral: Wear a hat and slop on a good sun-protection cream.
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I would find it interesting to know if there's any data on skin cancer incidence amongst pilots, as compared to the general community. For that matter, is there any data supporting a different rate of incidence of any ailments for pilots, as compared to the general community, i.e. occupational diseases. I have, for example, heard that our life expectancy is about 5 years less than the norm, but never seen any statistics to support this.
Regards,
Old Smokey
Regards,
Old Smokey
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Interestingly my Grandfather suffered from skin cancer, throat cancer and lung cancer he was known to blame the latter two on smoking 60 plus rothmans a day but the skin cancer he felt was a result of cockpit uv and sunbathing on stopovers.He was a 707 Captain in the days when health and safety was not all it is today and looking after yourself meant sitting at the pool!It would be easy to blame it all on sunbathing but he only managed to get to 47 before the larynx cancer got him.
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http://www.studentbmj.com/back_issue.../news/95b.html
http://www.aviation-health.com/news/...p?load=ors.htm - just over half way down, under 'cosmic radiation and cancer'. Some interesting numbers there...
T1
http://www.aviation-health.com/news/...p?load=ors.htm - just over half way down, under 'cosmic radiation and cancer'. Some interesting numbers there...
T1
Plastic PPRuNer
Tamesy1 - re "Increased risk of melanoma in airline pilots"
I would suggest that this increased risk in pilots of Icelandic Airlines is far more likely to be mostly accounted for by increased sun exposure in far-off places than by cosmic rays. Add the fact that the majority of Icelanders have Fitzgerald Type I (pale, always burn, never tan) or II skins (rather than the darker and more protected Types III and IV) and the results are pretty unsurprising.
I don't have access to the paper itself, but if they did not take into skin type into account or seek data on cumulative sun exposure for each person surveyed then the paper doesn't really tell us anything much.
"The high risk of malignant melanoma appears to be exacerbated by jetlag. Regular flights over several time zones increased the risk even further." - these are characteristic of long flights, usually to sunny places. This is a more likely mechanism for melanogenesis than time-zone fatigue itself.
To do them justice, the authors do "...acknowledge that pilots have other occupational and lifestyle factors that affect the risk of skin cancer, such as exposure to sun, engine exhaust gases, ozone, and cosmic radiation."
Unfortunately a large number of papers published today reveal either insignificant trivia or matters of such crashing obviousness that one wonders what they hope to accomplish apart from yet another publication.
Incidentally, in a recent editorial, Daniel J Ncayiyana, the editor of the South African Medical Journal, pointed out that judged by it's own criteria, there is no evidence to support the proposition that so called "evidence based medicine" is any better than more traditional approaches....
Mac
I would suggest that this increased risk in pilots of Icelandic Airlines is far more likely to be mostly accounted for by increased sun exposure in far-off places than by cosmic rays. Add the fact that the majority of Icelanders have Fitzgerald Type I (pale, always burn, never tan) or II skins (rather than the darker and more protected Types III and IV) and the results are pretty unsurprising.
I don't have access to the paper itself, but if they did not take into skin type into account or seek data on cumulative sun exposure for each person surveyed then the paper doesn't really tell us anything much.
"The high risk of malignant melanoma appears to be exacerbated by jetlag. Regular flights over several time zones increased the risk even further." - these are characteristic of long flights, usually to sunny places. This is a more likely mechanism for melanogenesis than time-zone fatigue itself.
To do them justice, the authors do "...acknowledge that pilots have other occupational and lifestyle factors that affect the risk of skin cancer, such as exposure to sun, engine exhaust gases, ozone, and cosmic radiation."
Unfortunately a large number of papers published today reveal either insignificant trivia or matters of such crashing obviousness that one wonders what they hope to accomplish apart from yet another publication.
Incidentally, in a recent editorial, Daniel J Ncayiyana, the editor of the South African Medical Journal, pointed out that judged by it's own criteria, there is no evidence to support the proposition that so called "evidence based medicine" is any better than more traditional approaches....
Mac
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Old Smokey, you may want to have a look at "Medline."
Using the search terms "Pilot" AND "cancer" revealled this paper... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...=pubmed_docsum
which could be a starting point for your enquiries.
I think the matter of pilots and health was discussed on this very forum some years ago. At the time, I think the advice was that an insurance actuary would probably be more of a help to you than a doctor, but the general feeling was that pilots on the whole lived longer and better than Joe Average, due to their socio-economic advantage (I got in trouble for that one), but the incidence (?prevalence) rate was higher for skin cancers.
Using the search terms "Pilot" AND "cancer" revealled this paper... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...=pubmed_docsum
which could be a starting point for your enquiries.
I think the matter of pilots and health was discussed on this very forum some years ago. At the time, I think the advice was that an insurance actuary would probably be more of a help to you than a doctor, but the general feeling was that pilots on the whole lived longer and better than Joe Average, due to their socio-economic advantage (I got in trouble for that one), but the incidence (?prevalence) rate was higher for skin cancers.
Last edited by gingernut; 7th Feb 2007 at 14:26.
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Thank you for the link, gingernut, some interesting information there.
Interesting to see your comment that we, as a group, generally live longer than the norm, I'd always understood the opposite to be true. It's just that at my time in life (58) I have to do some forward planning, given my commitments and other duties outside my normal flying "day job", I'm planning to retire about 6 months after I'm dead.
Regards,
Old Smokey
Interesting to see your comment that we, as a group, generally live longer than the norm, I'd always understood the opposite to be true. It's just that at my time in life (58) I have to do some forward planning, given my commitments and other duties outside my normal flying "day job", I'm planning to retire about 6 months after I'm dead.
Regards,
Old Smokey
