Health Physics and Aviation

Abstract

For several years, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has explicitly recognized flight crew members as workers who are occupationally exposed to radiation. To help these workers assess their radiation risks, the FAA has developed a computer program that will estimate cosmic-ray exposures from individual flights. They have published documents which inform crew members of the statistical risks associated with their radiation exposure, and they have issued an advisory to the commercial air carriers suggesting that they institute an appropriate educational program for their employees. These developments represent a significant change from ten years ago when the Federal Aviation Administration concluded that, in the area of in-flight radiation exposure, any regulatory involvement on their part would be unwarranted because the vast majority of crew members would not exceed the recommended maximum permissible dose limits then applicable to members of the general public.