Cosmic Radiation
and Frequent Flyers
Dr.
Stephen Blythe
http://www.travelhealth.com
A recent Gannett News Service article on cosmic radiation stated that
airline flight could expose frequent flyers to the "equivalent of
20 chest x-rays" from cosmic radiation. This is probably a little
bit alarmist, and certainly far more of a concern for pilots and flight
crew than most travelers.
It is true that cosmic radiation bombards all of us all the time - and
the higher in altitude you go, the more of this radiation penetrates our bodies.
It is certainly a concern of NASA as they look at long-term space flight.
The FAA has a computer program which can be used to estimate radiation
exposure on a particular flight - it can be downloaded from http://www.cami.jccbi.goc/AAM600/610/600radio.html
and I should warn you that it's a great big MS-DOS program that is about
as cumbersome as its URL. I looked at a sample flight from Dallas to London
and extimated an exposure of about 30 microsieverts (I guess Dr. Sievert
replaced Dr. Roentgen in radiological prominence). While this IS the equivalent
of the radiation exposure from a single anterior-posterior chest x-ray,
most chest x-rays include a lateral view, which requires about eight times
that amount of radiation. SO - making four round trips Dallas-London would
be the same as one AP & Lateral chest x-ray. Travel on the Concorde gives
you a little more exposure (quite a bit more cosmic radiation but for
a shorter period of time!). Should you worry? Hopefully you have things
to worry about which you have more control over than this! Can you do
something? Yes - I recommend that frequent airline travelers make sure
they take an anti-oxidant supplement. Anti-oxidants have been shown to
protect against the damage caused by ionizing radiation.
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