Re: Pregnancy and Air Travel

[michael_coogen@ccgw1.hq.dla.mil]

     My experience is that physicans tend to restrict air travel in the 
     later months of pregnancy rather than the first trimester.  It is my 
     opinion that the risk from radiation exposure to air travel would have 
     a negligible effect, if any.  


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Pregnancy and Air Travel
Author:  radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu at ~GW1
Date:    1/29/96 10:43 AM


I recently received an inquiry from a woman who indicated that her 
obstetrician had told her to avoid air travel during the first trimester of 
her pregnancy due to the increased radiation exposure attendant to this form 
of travel. (She is not exposed to radiation occupationally.) From previous 
Radsafe postings, it seems that the total dose of radiation received during 
a cross-country air flight is quite small (on the order of 10 millirems or 
so, round trip). I am curious as to whether anyone else has received an 
inquiry of this nature, and whether this type of instruction (avoidance of 
air travel by pregnant women in the first trimester) is becoming 
commonplace. Or does the woman who spoke with me just have a particularly 
radiation-phobic physician?
     
By the way, it seems that there are considerably greater air travel-related 
risks for pregnant women, such as lugging heavy suitcases, increased 
physiological stress due to jet lag, etc. 
     
Rick Mannix
Univ. of Calif., Irvine
EH&S Office
rcmannix@uci.edu