Why are pilots concerned about their health?
Because of the frequency they are in the air, some pilots are concerned that the extra radiation exposure will put them at greater risk of health issues. In a recent letter to the TSA (which we fact-check here), Captain Dan Bates, president of the Allied Pilots Association (APA), wrote: “We already experience significantly higher radiation exposure than most other occupations, and there is mounting evidence of higher-than-average cancer rates as a consequence.” Past studies have suggested that veteran pilots are disproportionately susceptible to cancer and malignant melanoma, in particular due to prolonged exposure to cosmic ionizing rays. A survey of Icelandic commercial flyboys, conducted in 2000 by the University of Iceland’s Dr. Vilhjálmur Rafnsson, found that skin cancer rates for pilots were between 10 and 25 times higher than that of the general public. That same year, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) issued a report on ionizin
