Report: Pilots receive more radiation than nuclear plant workers

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@ix.netcom.com>]

I thought that this article would be of general interest to the 
members...

  TOKYO, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Pilots and crews on international  
flights are pelted with yearly doses of radiation about three 
times higher than those received by workers at nuclear plants, a
Japanese daily reported on Sunday. 
  According to a six-year survey conducted by the Japanese  
Federation of Flight Crew Unions, crews on international flights are
being bombarded with naturally occuring cosmic radiation, the Mainichi
Shimbun reported. 
  International crews that flew between 700 to 800 hours a  
year were exposed to an average of three millisieverts of 
radiation. The average exposure for a technician at a Japanese 
nuclear plant is one millisievert, the paper reported. 
  Japan's Science and Technology Agency sets a maximum yearly  
exposure safety level for nuclear plant workers at 50 
millisieverts, the paper said. 
  The survey said that crews who flew on the New York to Tokyo  
route received some of the highest exposures to cosmic 
radiation. Routes that pass near the North Pole also receive 
high doses of cosmic radiation, the paper said. 
  The Earth's atmosphere and magnetic fields filter out almost  
all cosmic radiation, but at an altitude of 10,000 metres 
(32,800 feet), levels of cosmic radiation are about 100 to 200 
times higher than at ground level, it said. 
------------------
Sandy Perle
Technical Director
ICN Dosimetry Division
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Office: (800) 548-5100 x2306 
Fax:    (714) 668-3149
  
sandyfl@ix.netcom.com
sperle@icnpharm.com

Personal Homepage:
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/1205

ICN Dosimetry Website:
http://www.dosimetry.com


"The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
              - G. K. Chesterton -