Flight Attendants Are More Likely to Get Cancer

It may seem like a dream job, but being a flight attendant or other cabin crew for an airline comes with a serious potential health risk: an increase in certain types of cancers and other health concerns, especially if you work in the United States, as opposed to the European Union.

A new study by Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, led by research associate Irina Mordukhovich, has confirmed that cabin crew workers on flights in the United States have a higher cancer rate than much of the U.S. population. As a potential explanation, Mordukhovich told Live Science that cabin crew workers are exposed to carcinogens on a regular basis thanks to their work environment.

Cosmic ionizing radiation, for example, is found in much larger concentrations at higher altitudes – and it can cause both skin and breast cancer. UV radiation exposure is also an issue and can cause skin cancer, and circadian rhythm disruptions and chemical contaminants are also a problem. In the European Union, regulations protect the workers from over-exposure, but those regulations don’t exist in the U.S.

Mordukhovich’s study looked at online health survey results from more than 5,300 flight attendants working for various airlines. Their responses were compared to 2,700 people with similar economic and educational standing that don’t work as flight attendants. For female flight attendants, breast cancer rates were 50 percent higher, melanoma occurred more than twice as much, and other skin cancer rates were four times higher. For the male flight attendants, melanoma rates were 50 percent higher and other skin cancers were 10 percent higher. Other studies show that pilots suffer as well, with higher rates of both skin and prostate cancers.

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