Radiation doses while flying gliders

Bruno wrote:
I know a few airline pilots and none of them have died of cancer yet,
but with all the news about airport scanners and the comments that the
radiation they put out is the same amount as a few minutes of
radiation while at cruise has me thinking.


My vertebrate physiology professor did radiation research for the (never
produced) Super Sonic Transport (SST) back in the day. The idea was
that, at the (much) higher altitudes, radiation might be a problem. When
he concluded the project, he said that he was way more concerned about
the increased levels of ozone than the radiation.

Tony

Thanks for the replies and info. Based on private messages I will be
coming out in the Spring with a full clothing line of lead-lined
soaring clothing - yes, including male athletic supporters for the
ridge runners like TT...

Bruno - B4

Originally Posted by Bruno[_2_]

Thanks for the replies and info. Based on private messages I will be
coming out in the Spring with a full clothing line of lead-lined
soaring clothing - yes, including male athletic supporters for the
ridge runners like TT...

Bruno - B4

Bruno,

It might be interesting to consider the levels of allowable occupational exposure to radiation here in the U.S of A. I did Nuclear Medicine and Health Physics for some 20 years. We wore dosimeters and were allowed to be exposed to a maximum of 5000 millirem (mRem) per year not to exceed 3000 mRem in any one quarter. Your lifetime allowable exposure was calculated at 5 rem (5000mRem) x N (your age) -18. In short, you were allowed 5Rem of occupational exposure for each year after 18 years of age. It would be interesting to see the levels of cancer and cancer deaths among those who have been occupationally exposed. By now we should have some good statistics as at least one generation has retired from this industry.

The conversion to Sieverts would be as follows.

1uSv (1 micro Sievert) = .1 mRem (milli rem)
Therefore 10 uSv would = 1 mRem
50,000 uSv's would = 5000 mRem/ year, the allowable yearly exposure
level for those working in the industry.

Interestingly enough it has been measured that the exposure to an astronaut on the space station would be 1mSv (millsievert) per DAY, which is the equivalent to one year on the Earth's surface. They consider this an acceptable level of risk.

I believe Alan Shepherd died of Leukemia at 74, it would be interesting to research the cause of death among all astronauts/cosmonauts over the years.

Keep flying high, it beats the alternative of dying of boredom.

Walt

On Thu, 10 Feb 2011 14:56:57 +0000, Walt Connelly wrote:

I believe Alan Shepherd died of Leukemia at 74, it would be interesting
to research the cause of death among all astronauts/cosmonauts over the
years.

I vaguely remember hearing that SAC crews from the cold war era had
higher than normal cancer death rates. Is there any truth in this? If its
so, would that be related more to their scantily wrapped 'cargo' than to
their flying hours at altitude?


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

The story I remember concerned picket aircraft before the DEW line
became operational. The radar operators were getting cancer much more
frequently than the other crew members. It was blamed on the radar,
though, not on cosmic radiation.

-John

On Feb 10, 3:20 pm, Martin Gregorie
wrote:
On Thu, 10 Feb 2011 14:56:57 +0000, Walt Connelly wrote:
I vaguely remember hearing that SAC crews from the cold war era had
higher than normal cancer death rates. Is there any truth in this? If its
so, would that be related more to their scantily wrapped 'cargo' than to
their flying hours at altitude?