The sun is very active at the moment, solar storms are bombarding the earth with unusually high levels of radiation. Airlines have been aware for a long time that air travel exposes their employees and passengers to some health risks such as deep vein thrombosis and the spread of germs and viruses. They also know that cosmic radiation has the potential to cause cancer and some are funding research to find out exactly what the effects are, and who, if any, are at risk.
The amounts of cosmic radiation you are exposed to while flying depends on a number of things, the altitude, latitude, length and frequency of time spent flying and solar activity. The higher you fly the less effective the earth’s protective layers are. Certain routes are known to expose those travelling by air to higher levels of radiation. Flying across the northern and southern poles where the earth’s magnetic fields are not as efficient at deflecting particles exposing us to more radiation, so long haul flights to Japan do in theory heighten your chances of getting cancer.A transatlantic flight is equivalent to having at least one chest X-ray. Passengers flying at 35,000 feet are exposed to between 50 and 100 times more radiation than when they are on earth. So should we be worried?
The Radiation Protection Bureau in Canada states that cosmic radiation, ‘adds a small addition to the underlying cancer risk from all causes’. They do express concern about the effect on babies as it is known that babies are very sensitive to the effects of radiation and airlines in general recommend that pregnant women keep their exposure to the same levels and small variations as is present in ‘natural background radiation.
A resent research study from Iceland found female flight attendants who worked for 5 years or more from 1971 were 5 times more likely to develop breast cancer than those with less experience.
Facts about Cosmic Radiation
