Just some more data:

Radiation Exposure During Commercial Airline Flights
A summary of 5 different research studies. The findings gave various results on annual exposure, based on varying assumptions:

-The average annual cosmic radiation dose for flight personnel was 219 mrem.
- The corresponding annual effective dose, based on 700 hours of flight for subsonic aircraft and 300 hours for the Concorde, can be estimated at between 200 mrem for the least exposed routes and 500 mrem for the more exposed routes.
- Average annual cosmic ray dose for cabin crews was 227 mrem.
- Average annual cosmic ray dose for long-distance flight captains was 219 mrem.

Annual individual doses of all monitored flight personnel are well below the limit of 2,000 mrem per year recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP)

So a year of flying as regularly as an airline crew members gets you 1/10 to 1/4 the recommended limit.



And according to DOE Oakridge
Gastrointestinal series (upper & lower): 1400 millirem
CT Scan (head & body): 1100 millirem
Radon in average household: 200 millirem/year
Mammogram: 30 millirem
Smoking Cigarettes (1 pack/day): 15-20 millirem/year
*Maximum possible from normal operations on the Oak Ridge Reservation: 12 millirem/year
Consumer products: 11 millirem/year
Chest X-ray: 10 millirem
Dental X-ray: 10 millirem
Using natural gas in the home: 9 millirem/year
Road construction material: 4 millirem/year
Living near a nuclear power station: 1 millirem/year
Air travel (every 2006 miles): 1 millirem -

So 1 chest xray = 20,060 miles flying (30-40 hours), 1 GI series = 2.8M miles flying (5,000+ hours in the air)


While the article is factually correct, it uses the typical fear mongering tactics of point out something dangerous, then another fact that appears to be related but really doesn't mean much. Oxygen can kill you. The air is full of oxygen. Holy &^%%^, I better stop breathing....



Yes, radiation can be dangerous. Yes, flying a lot can equal a few chest xrays. But that doesn't make flying a radiation hazard. 200 chest xrays a year, just like 4 million miles a year, is indeed dangerous - If you're at an xray a week, and 1M BIS miles a year, then you can start worrying, IMHO.

Reagarding the "full body scan machine" - magnetometers don't use radiation, and the new backscatter and millimeter wave scanners scanners either don't penetrate the skin (providing opportunities for obese or creative terrorists) or provide a does equal to about 15 minutes of background radiation.