According to a new study from Harvard Medical School published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, pilots and flight attendants have the highest rate of radiation-related cancer mortality among more than 500 professions in the United States. Researchers explain that the main cause of this trend is high levels of cosmic radiation exposure during high-altitude flights.
As part of the study, scientists analyzed nearly 13 million death certificates from the period between 2020 and 2024 (with data adjusted for age, sex, genetics, and other factors). The examined data spanned 503 different occupations, including 14,000 pilots and 7,000 flight attendants. The analysis showed that radiation-related cancers accounted for 6.9% of all deaths among flight attendants and 6.7% among pilots. Notably, aviation personnel outranked even professions such as nuclear power technology specialists, who placed only 12th on the list.
An analysis of specific oncological diseases revealed that pilots and flight attendants face statistically significantly higher mortality from breast, central nervous system, and prostate cancers, as well as melanoma. Additionally, fatal outcomes from leukemia were reported more frequently among pilots.
For context, airline crew members receive an average of 3 to 6 millisieverts (mSv) of cosmic radiation annually, which far exceeds the exposure of a typical passenger (roughly 0.4 mSv per year for about 10 flights). Although the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recognizes crew members as a radiation risk group, unlike in many other countries, strict federal dosage limits and mandatory monitoring requirements do not apply to them. Consequently, the study’s authors emphasize the urgent need to revise occupational radiation protection standards for crew members to accurately reflect their real levels of exposure.
