Dose in air travel

["Leif Peterson, Ph.D." <peterson@bcm.tmc.edu>]

This is an area in which there is actually a lot going on.
There's a computer code called CARI from Dr. Wally Friedberg
at FAA (medical facility) in Oklahoma City and, other codes 
I am sure.   

Once at NASA, we used CARI to do a run for estimating pilot dose
from flying from Houston to LAX at 60,000 in the EB-57 Canberra.
The results were something like 90 uSv (9 mrem), so we punted.  

One of things you have to watch out for when estimating
dose in air travel is the fact that about 50% of the dose
is from neutrons, so the NCRP people say.  Everyone knows
that if you're estimating dose equivalent from neutrons, 
you have to know the energy spectrum, which is not easy
to find out.  With regard to RBEs, the kind of work that 
Drs. Marco Zaider (Columbia), Vic Bond (Brookhaven),
and Dean Kaul (SAIC, San Diego) are doing indicates that 
RBEs for neutrons are like a rubber ruler.  The RBE for
1 neutron is not the same as the RBE for 1000 neutrons.
Their approach is what ICRP Report 51 is for: to
start to get people thinking about the fluence-based
approach.  

With best regards,

Leif Peterson



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Leif E. Peterson, Ph.D., M.P.H.                    Phone: (713) 798-4614 
Assistant Professor of Medicine                      Fax: (713) 798-3990 
Center for Cancer Control Research          E-mail: peterson@bcm.tmc.edu 
Department of Medicine, ST-924                                           
Baylor College of Medicine               
One Baylor Plaza                          
Houston, Texas  77030                     
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