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Flying at higher altitudes also increases chance of developing cancer due to cosmic radiation. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12862322 https://www.ncbi.nl

Flying at higher altitudes also increases chance of developing cancer due to cosmic radiation. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12862322 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12862322 https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/aircrew/cosmicionizingradiation.html https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/aircrew/cosmicionizingradia... https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/air_travel.html https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/air_travel.html

Dibes 7y ago
Couldn't this be curbed by better radiation shielding on the plane itself?
- scythe 7y ago
  Not necessarily. Photons at Compton-dominant energies (200-5000 keV) can’t be effectively shielded because every material (including, eg, lead) absorbs them about the same. Also, shielding is inevitably heavy.
stareatgoats 7y ago
The first study: > METHODS: A cohort of 10,051 male and 160 female airline pilots [...] was followed for cancer incidence [...]. > RESULTS: Among male pilots, there were 466 cases of cancer diagnosed vs. 456 expected. So, a heightened risk of (466-456)/10051 = 0,001% if I read this correctly. Or am I misunderstanding something here? I guess so, because this seems close to negligible.
- gamegoblin 7y ago
  You forgot to multiply by 100 when you went to %, so it's actually 0.1% higher. Still pretty low.
  - stareatgoats 7y ago
    ah, thanks, silly mistake! Anyway, still a surprisingly low risk. Seems within the margin of error to me.