Radiation during flight
Radiation during flights is a dreaded and meanwhile well investigated danger of flying. It has long been known from measurements that the electromagnetic radiation at a flight altitude of 10,000 metres is many times higher than on the ground. While an average radiation level of 0.24 mSv (millisievert) is measured on the ground, the radiation at a flight altitude of only 3000 meters is already at 1.1 mSv.
Correspondingly even higher values are then measured at the actual flight altitude of an average passenger jet. Nevertheless, very few people can be dissuaded from flying for this reason. Why is this so?
One reason is the still very vague study of the long-term effects of radiation on the body. For example, there is practically no study of cancer of flying personnel or frequent flyers. The reason why the radiation is much stronger at high altitudes than on the ground is because the electromagnetic radiation has to penetrate a multitude of air layers to reach the earth.
Until then it is mostly filtered and harmless, although not completely harmless. At high altitudes, the radiation reaches the outside of the aircraft practically unhindered and can penetrate unhindered. The height and intensity of the radiation depends not only on the altitude flown, but also on the routes flown and the time of flight.
The most radiation-intensive flight routes lead over the North Atlantic and are close to the poles. At these points, the Earth’s magnetic field brings the dangerous electromagnetic radiation closer to the Earth than in Europe. An airplane from Europe to the USA crosses the radiation-intensive region close to the poles more than half the time in a 10-hour flight and is exposed to the radiation.
These flights are therefore considered to be more radiation-intensive and also more harmful to health than the routes from Europe to the south or east. There are calculations that a passenger on a transatlantic flight from Europe to the USA is exposed to as much radiation as an X-ray examination of the lungs. What is the effect of the increased radiation on pregnant women, especially since one wants to avoid any X-ray examination of pregnant women if possible? Unfortunately, there have been very few studies on this subject to date.
