Frequent Flying and the Risk of Ionizing Radiation
By Robert Latkany, MDFebruary 13, 2010
I told my wife I wanted to fly to Chicago this fall for an annual Ophthalmology meeting. As she was walking out the door, she called back "Stop flying so much!" Could it really be that she doesn want me to fly because she will miss me while I'm gone? Wishful thinking, but doubtful. She was probably worried about the health risks. So I had to look it up.
What is the big deal about frequent flying? Sure, there is always the concern that a malcontent will try to explode his underpants, that there will be a goose-induced water landing, or that a bowling ball will fall on my head out of the overhead carry-on compartment, but she must know that the risk of that type of catastrophe is low. There must be something more. Could she be worried about all the cosmic and ionizing radiation exposure at high altitude?
Well, excessive radiation does cause disease. Did you know that getting too much radiation, including by spending all your sunny days at the beach or by getting many CT scans of the head, will make people more likely to get cataracts at a younger age? Pilots get cataracts more often and sooner than others: Rafnsson et al found that pilots were 3 times more likely than non-pilots to develop nuclear sclerotic cataracts after adjusting for age, smoking status, and sunbathing habits. But the health risks do not stop there.
The risk of developing breast cancer risks were increased by 40% among female flight attendants according to Salhab and colleague.
A meta-analysis performed by Buja et al determined that female flight attendants had a high risk of developing melanoma, breast cancer and a slightly increased risk of other forms of cancer.
Pukkala et al evaluated over 10,000 airline pilots over time and found an increased risk of melanoma in male and female pilots and a slight increased risk of prostate cancer in their male pilots.
To limit these risks, the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) endorses an annual limit of excess radiation exposure at 100 mrem. To hit this limit, a person would have to log in 200 hours of flight time travel from New York to London each year, or 400 hours of flight time travel from Los Angeles to Hawaii each year. The closer a flight is to a pole, the more radiation the passengers are exposed to.
So I'm not worried. I'll just load up on antioxidants before my flight.
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