According to news outlet AeroTime, a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine has found that US flight attendants and pilots face the highest risk of dying from radiation-related cancers among 503 occupations evaluated, surpassing even workers who directly handle radioactive materials. The research, led by Dr. Vishal Patel of Harvard Medical School, analyzed more than 12 million US death certificates from 2020 to 2024 drawn from the National Vital Statistics System. The dataset covered nearly 13 million decedents across 503 occupations, including approximately 14,000 pilots and 7,000 flight attendants.
The study revealed that flight attendants had roughly 50% higher odds of dying from a radiation-related cancer compared to the general working population, while pilots faced approximately 36% higher odds. In absolute terms, radiation-linked cancers accounted for about 6.9% of flight attendant deaths and 6.7% of pilot deaths, compared with 5% among the general working workforce. Researchers examined deaths from radiation-associated cancers, including leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and cancers of the skin, breast, thyroid, prostate, and central nervous system, while explicitly excluding lung cancer to avoid confounding from smoking-related factors.
Neither pilots nor flight attendants exhibited elevated mortality rates from cancers unrelated to radiation. Researchers stated this pattern points to workplace cosmic radiation exposure rather than lifestyle or socioeconomic variables as the primary driver. According to data cited from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, aircrew accumulate an estimated three to six millisieverts of cosmic radiation per year depending on flight paths. This is significantly higher than the approximately 0.4 millisieverts an average air traveler receives annually from about ten cross-country round-trip flights.
While the Federal Aviation Administration formally recognizes pilots and flight attendants as occupationally exposed to ionizing radiation, US aircrew are not subject to federal dose limits or monitoring requirements, unlike radiation-exposed workers in other industries or flight crews in certain other jurisdictions. Commentary accompanying the study noted that modern airline scheduling has largely eliminated the extended layovers once thought to explain high skin cancer rates, pointing instead to cockpit and cabin radiation exposure during high-altitude flights as the principal cause.
Following the publication, Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents 55,000 flight attendants across 20 airlines, called for radiation-related cancer deaths among aircrew to be formally recognized as occupational deaths. Nelson highlighted that unlike European regulatory frameworks, the FAA does not require airlines to monitor crew exposure to radiation, urging regulators and the aviation industry to establish clear exposure limits, monitoring standards, and medical oversight for flight personnel.
