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Study Links Cosmic Radiation Exposure to Increased Cancer Risk for Flight Crews
Confirmed
In Short: A new study led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Germany has shown that water drops routinely arrive at surfaces carrying a significant electrical charge, which could have implications for flight crew exposure to cosmic radiation.
A new study led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Germany has shown that water drops routinely arrive at surfaces carrying a significant electrical charge, which could have implications for flight crew exposure to cosmic radiation. This research supports previous findings linking cosmic radiation exposure to increased cancer risk for flight crew members, according to reports from Aviationweek.
The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, analyzed mortality from radiation-related and non-radiation-related cancers among pilots and flight attendants, using epidemiological studies and cancer site-specific risk models. The research found that US pilots and flight attendants had higher odds of dying from cancers potentially related to radiation exposure compared to workers in other occupations.
The authors of the study suggest that the findings support considering radiation protections for crew members. In July, France’s Social Division of the Bayonne Judicial Court recognized that a flight attendant’s breast cancer had an occupational origin, including exposure to ionizing radiation. Aircrew members receive the largest mean annual effective dose of ionizing radiation of any occupational group in the U.S., the authors say.
What's still developing
- The starting point of the study is a phenomenon called “slide electrification,” which has only been properly quantified in the past few years.
- “However, specificity of these findings to air crews suggests an association between large, cumulative inflight cosmic radiation exposure and a heterogeneous group of radiation-related cancers,” the authors say.
- Cosmic rays encountered at commercial flight altitudes are the source, but studies so far have been relatively inconclusive.
- Using epidemiological studies and cancer site-specific risk models, they included breast, central nervous system, multiple myeloma, leukemia, lymphoma, thyroid and prostate, as well as melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers, in radiation-related cancers.
- They excluded lung cancer to reduce potential confounding, given its association with smoking.
- Leah Cottell, who has been leading the study, said the process had been "incredibly time-consuming" but she had learned a lot.
- While the study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, provides “compelling evidence that aircrew face a higher risk of dying from cancer than the two comparison groups studied,” it “cannot separate the effects of the different occupational exposures aircrew may experience,” said Chaya Moskowitz, PhD, attending biostatistician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, who wasn’t involved in the study.