Incidence of cancer among licenced commercial pilots flying North Atlantic routes.
Average rating
Cast your vote
You can rate an item by clicking the amount of stars they wish to award to this item.
When enough users have cast their vote on this item, the average rating will also be shown.
Star rating
Your vote was cast
Thank you for your feedback
Thank you for your feedback
Issue Date
2017-08-16
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Incidence of cancer among licenced commercial pilots flying North Atlantic routes. 2017, 16 (1):86 Environ HealthAbstract
To evaluate cancer incidence among licenced commercial pilots in association with cosmic radiation.Cohort study where ionizing radiation dose of cosmic radiation was estimated from airline data and software program and cancer incidence was obtained by record linkage with nation-wide cancer registry. All licenced commercial male airline pilots were followed from 1955 to 2015, ever or never employed at airline with international routes. Standardized incidence ratios were calculated and relative risk by Poisson regression, to examine exposure-response relation.
Eighty three cancers were registered compared with 92 expected; standardized incidence ratios were 0.90 (95% CI 0.71 to 1.11) for all cancers, 3.31 (95% CI 1.33 to 6.81) for malignant melanoma, and 2.49 (95% CI 1.69 to 3.54), for basal cell carcinoma of skin. The risk for all cancers, malignant melanoma, prostate cancer, basal cell carcinoma of skin, and basal cell carcinoma of trunk increased with an increase in number of employment years, cumulative air hours, total cumulative radiation dose, and cumulative radiation dose sustained up to age of 40 years. The relative risk for the highest exposure categories of cumulative radiation dose were 2.42 (95% CI 1.50 to 3.92) for all cancers, 2.57 (95% CI 1.18 to 5.56) for prostate cancer, 9.88 (95% CI 1.57 to 190.78) for malignant melanoma, 3.61 (95% CI 1.64 to 8.48) for all basal cell carcinoma, and 6.65 (95% CI 1.61 to 44.64) for basal cell carcinoma of trunk.
This study was underpowered to study brain cancer and leukaemia risk. Basal cell carcinoma of skin is radiation-related cancer, and may be attributed to cosmic radiation. Further studies are needed to clarify the risk of cancers in association with cosmic radiation, other workplace exposure, host factors, and leisure sun-exposure, as clothes, and glass in cockpit windows shield pilots from the most potent ultraviolet-radiation.
Description
To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked FilesAdditional Links
https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12940-017-0295-4?site=ehjournal.biomedcentral.comRights
Archived with thanks to Environmental health : a global access science sourceae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1186/s12940-017-0295-4
Scopus Count
Collections
Related articles
- Cancer incidence among 10,211 airline pilots: a Nordic study.
- Authors: Pukkala E, Aspholm R, Auvinen A, Eliasch H, Gundestrup M, Haldorsen T, Hammar N, Hrafnkelsson J, Kyyrönen P, Linnersjö A, Rafnsson V, Storm H, Tveten U
- Issue date: 2003 Jul
- Incidence of cancer among commercial airline pilots.
- Authors: Rafnsson V, Hrafnkelsson J, Tulinius H
- Issue date: 2000 Mar
- Radiation-induced acute myeloid leukaemia and other cancers in commercial jet cockpit crew: a population-based cohort study.
- Authors: Gundestrup M, Storm HH
- Issue date: 1999 Dec 11
- Incidence of cancer among Nordic airline pilots over five decades: occupational cohort study.
- Authors: Pukkala E, Aspholm R, Auvinen A, Eliasch H, Gundestrup M, Haldorsen T, Hammar N, Hrafnkelsson J, Kyyrönen P, Linnersjö A, Rafnsson V, Storm H, Tveten U
- Issue date: 2002 Sep 14
- Cosmic radiation increases the risk of nuclear cataract in airline pilots: a population-based case-control study.
- Authors: Rafnsson V, Olafsdottir E, Hrafnkelsson J, Sasaki H, Arnarsson A, Jonasson F
- Issue date: 2005 Aug