COSMIC RAYS LINKED TO FLIGHT ATTENDANT CANCER: This summer, French courts decided an issue that scientists have struggled with for years: Aviation radiation is real, and it increases the risk of cancer in flight crews.

Sophie Lainault, 59, flew for Air France for 30 years, logging more than 12,600 hours in the air. In July, judges in Bayonne recognized her cancer as an occupational disease. A new Harvard study agrees, concluding that flight crews die of radiation-related cancers even more often than nuclear workers.

Writing in the Aug. 17th issue of JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers led by Vishal Patel of Brigham and Women's Hospital examined nearly 13 million US death certificates from 2020 to 2024. Out of 503 professions, flight attendants ranked #1 for deaths from radiation-related cancers, while pilots ranked #2.

The reason is galactic cosmic rays. High-energy particles from supernova explosions and other violent events in the cosmos pepper Earth's atmosphere from all directions. This radiation percolates all the way down to aviation altitudes. Even a single cross-country flight can deliver as much radiation as five dental X-rays. International flights (especially over the poles) are worse.

Pilots and flight attendants accumulate 3 to 6 millisieverts per year, according to the CDC. This is the largest occupational dose of any workforce in the United States, and roughly ten times what a typical frequent flyer gets.

The study also looked at aircraft mechanics and assemblers--people who spend their careers around airplanes but rarely leave the ground. They were middle of the pack, with fewer radiation-related cancers than flight crews.

For years the link between aviation radiation and cancer was complicated by two other potential carcinogens: Working the graveyard shift and breathing secondhand smoke. Both were thought to cause cancer in flight crews. The new study shows that cosmic rays do play a role, and may be the biggest risk of all.

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