Cancer Prevalence Among Flight Attendants Compared To The General Population

[dfspcc20]

https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-018-0396-8

I know several people here, including Peat himself, have expressed reservations (pun intended) about flying.

I'd like to see the genetic determinists explain this one.

Interesting that melanoma and other skin cancers had higher risk, despite no evidence of additional sun exposure.

I didn't see it mentioned, but I wonder if the poor-quality airplane food plays a role. Do flight attendants usually eat what's provided on long-haul flights, or bring their own food?

 

[Waynish]

Well they claim the oxygen/co2 mixture of airplane air isn't much different. However, I wonder about it's consistently... Are they quicklg pumping pure oxygen in to offset the exhaled co2 in the cabin? There are website showing people's measurements, which seemed reasonable. So what about higher energy particles from the sun?

 

[rei]

All jet passenger planes except the very newest recirculate the cabin air from engine bleed air, and it contains toxic chemicals. This is probably the true reason for the health effects seen, and cosmic rays are a diversion.

My understanding is that higher up the cosmic rays are so high energy that they pass right through without interacting, but at sea level they have been slowed down sufficiently to interact and do damage.

 

[ecstatichamster]

All jet passenger planes except the very newest recirculate the cabin air from engine bleed air, and it contains toxic chemicals. This is probably the true reason for the health effects seen, and cosmic rays are a diversion.

My understanding is that higher up the cosmic rays are so high energy that they pass right through without interacting, but at sea level they have been slowed down sufficiently to interact and do damage.

I think Dr Peat believesmthis about cosmic rays. But the engine air part is not true. See http://www.smartcockpit.com/docs/Engineering_Aspects_of_Cabin_Air_Quality.pdf

 

[rei]

What part is not true? I don't see anything there refuting what i said.

 

[ecstatichamster]

What part is not true? I don't see anything there refuting what i said.

the numbers are not that high...

 

[rei]

It is not as if there is an obvious harmful effect, so it is expected the amount of toxic material is small. But real.

edit: the study even mentions poor cabin air quality as one factor.

 

[Waynish]

What about those aerosolized agents they spray to stop migration of insects or whatever? Have you ever been 30m from landing and some stewardess hustles down the cabin with a face mask and a canister spraying some chemical into the air? I've seen this many times - and I usually just watch everyone breath it in as I cover my nose with a couple layers of cloth for the next 20m. I never did find out which chemicals are sprayed. So far I've seen this done between places in Asia and Mexico.

 

[tankasnowgod]

First thing that came to my mind was extra radiation exposure from the Van Allen Belts.

I've also heard that cabin air quality has gotten worse since smoking was banned on all flights, since less fresh air is now taken in from the outside.

Beyond those factors, there is also the problems of any job that requires constant travel, like rarely sleeping in your own bed and constantly jumping time zones. I know a guy that used to be a roadie, and while he certainly had some fun times, he said it got to be nerve racking rather quick. He also overindulged in alcohol and hard drugs to maintain his schedule (weed and alcohol to go to sleep, cocaine to start the day). I'm sure such practices are somewhat common with Flight Attendants, as well.

 

[dfspcc20]

First thing that came to my mind was extra radiation exposure from the Van Allen Belts.

I've also heard that cabin air quality has gotten worse since smoking was banned on all flights, since less fresh air is now taken in from the outside.

Beyond those factors, there is also the problems of any job that requires constant travel, like rarely sleeping in your own bed and constantly jumping time zones. I know a guy that used to be a roadie, and while he certainly had some fun times, he said it got to be nerve racking rather quick. He also overindulged in alcohol and hard drugs to maintain his schedule (weed and alcohol to go to sleep, cocaine to start the day). I'm sure such practices are somewhat common with Flight Attendants, as well.

I think proper sleep is the big factor. The paradox mentioned in the study is that woman flight attendants with *more* children tended to have higher rates of breast cancer. I can attest to the fact that it's nearly impossible to get sleep during the day when you have kids at home. If those women were doing night shift work, that would be a double whammy. But then again, I'm not sure if the same thing is seen with nurses and other professions that typically have shift work.

 

[fradon]

high RADIATION