Flight Attendants Have Higher Risks Of Cancer, Study Says

A group of researchers from  Harvard T.H. found that flight attendants have a higher risk of getting all sorts of cancer compared to the normal status quo. Here’s what we know. According to a recent study from the Environmental Health today journal, it was found that flight attendants are more exposed to the risk of cancer compared to those of normal state.

Flight attendants have a higher risk of getting Cancer

There is no confirmation as to the reason behind it but there are suspected insights such as the flight attendant’s high exposure to cosmic ionizing radiation at flight altitude, Circadian rhythm disruption, and poor quality of cabin air can bridge an effect.

This also raises an issue on banning flight attendants who smoke before a flight to protect them from the risks of cancer. It wasn’t until 2014 that flight attendants were given Safety and Health Administration protection thus their protection is still at risk.

One concern is the exposure of flight attendants to cosmic ionizing radiation. Since these radiations are not monitored and contained, there is no way flight attendants can avoid such matter on board. As reported, flight crews and cabin crews are most at risk when it comes to this.

Also, specified cancers that are prone to hit flight attendants are breast cancer, melanoma, and particularly non-melanoma skin cancer, but the researchers also found a higher prevalence of uterine, cervical, gastrointestinal, and thyroid cancers.

To further study a  flight attendant’s health and safety, Harvard founded  Harvard Flight Attendant Health Study (FAHS) in 2007. FAHS studies the matter of health for flight attendants, in general, to see whether there are more developing illnesses brought upon by in-flight cabins or before flight actions to maintain the safety of flight attendants everywhere.

In this state, the FAHS aim to characterize the prevalence of a wide range of specific cancer diagnoses among occupational groups relative to the general population and share statistics to commend and outpower the dangers of cancer itself, towards or not to just our flight attendants.