Flight attendants and pilots face the highest risk of getting radiation-related cancer in comparison to all other occupations.
The research published in JAMA Internal Medicine and led by Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Vishal Patel assessed over 12.7 million U.S. death certificates from 2020 to 2024 across 503 occupations.
The investigation revealed that flight attendants have around 50% higher odds of dying from radiation-related cancers than the general working population, while pilots have 36% higher odds.
In the case of flight attendants, approximately 6.9 per cent of deaths due to cancers caused by radiation exposure, or 1 in 14, have occurred. Pilots also had a mortality rate of 6.7 per cent. This was higher than nuclear technologists, who ranked 12th although routinely exposed to radiation from non-cosmic sources.
The cancers under study included breast cancer, prostate cancer, melanoma, and some leukaemias. All of these cancers have been identified as being caused by radiation exposure. Notably, aircrew did not have any abnormally high death rates for cancers not caused by radiation.
Commercial jets cruise above 30,000 ft, where the atmosphere offers less shielding from cosmic radiation annually, significantly more than the average traveller taking 10 cross-country round-trip per year, who receives only about 0.4 millisieverts.
Even though the FAA considers aircrew as occupationally exposed to ionising radiation, there is no federally mandated dose limit or requirement for monitoring of U.S. pilots and flight attendants, while nuclear workers or aircrew in Europe have such restrictions.
According to Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, “The risk is known, but crew are not educated or informed.”
Studies suggest that aircrew should undergo annual skin examination, and female flight attendants and pilots should have mammograms done earlier.
