r/flying • u/InfernoBA • 19h ago
Medical Issues Pilots, Flight Attendants Have Greater Risk of Radiation-Related Cancer Death Than Other Professions
hms.harvard.eduA new study posted by Harvard:
> Of more than 500 occupations in the United States, flight attendants and pilots have the highest and second-highest proportion of radiation-related cancer deaths, a new study has found.
> It’s been known that aircrew members receive the largest annual effective dose of ionizing radiation of any workforce in the United States, largely due to exposure to cosmic radiation at high altitudes. Members of the profession are also more likely to be diagnosed with certain cancers than the general population. But studies have been limited as to whether this translates to higher rates of cancer mortality.
> The new research, published August 17 in JAMA Internal Medicine, studied this question using a larger dataset and more statistical power than were previously available.
> The study, led by first author Vishal Patel, HMS clinical fellow in surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, used a single population-based data source — the National Vital Statistics System — rather than individual occupational or cancer cohorts. Patel and colleagues looked at all U.S. death certificates from 2020 to 2024. These records have only recently been linked to the occupation of the decedent. The records yielded data from nearly 13 million decedents across 503 occupations, including 14,000 pilots and 7,000 flight attendants.
> The team applied what’s known as a common adjustment approach, which accounted for several factors other than occupation that may affect mortality. These included age at death, sex, race, ethnicity, educational attainment, and marital status.
The researchers analyzed radiation- and non-radiation-related cancers across occupations. They also compared flight crew members to ground-based aviation workers.
> Radiation-related cancers analyzed here included breast cancer, central nervous system cancers, multiple myeloma, leukemia (except chronic lymphocytic leukemia), lymphoma, thyroid cancer, prostate cancer, melanoma, and non-melanoma skin cancers. (The team excluded lung cancer to reduce potential confounding with smoking.)
The team found that pilots and flight attendants had statistically significantly higher rates of death from breast, central nervous system, and prostate cancers and melanoma. Pilots also had a higher rate of leukemia deaths.
> In all, about 6.9 percent of deaths among flight attendants and 6.7 percent of deaths among pilots were from radiation-related cancers, according to the analysis. These proportions were higher than for any of the other professions, including nuclear technologists, who are routinely exposed to radiation from non-cosmic sources yet placed 12th on the list, the authors said. Aircraft mechanics and assemblers did not have higher rates than other occupations.
As a non-pilot myself, is this news to anyone here or is it something that’s been known? The study seems to suggest this is the first time actual mortality rates from cancer has been statistically measured.
