• Posted August 19, 2026

These Jet-Setting Jobs Carry The Highest Risk Of Radiation-Related Cancer Death In The Nation

Two jet-setting jobs carry the nation’s highest risk of radiation-related cancer death, a new study says.

Out of more than 500 U.S. occupations, flight attendants and pilots are first and second when it comes to cancer deaths caused by radiation exposure, researchers reported Aug. 17 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Aircrew members receive the largest annual dose of ionizing radiation of any workforce in America, largely due to exposure to cosmic radiation while flying at high altitudes, researchers said.

“This proportion exceeded even that for nuclear technologists, who are routinely exposed to radiation from non-cosmic sources,” wrote the research team led by Dr. Anupam Jena, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School.

For the study, researchers looked at nearly 13 million U.S. death certificates from 2020 to 2024 across 503 different jobs, including 14,000 pilots and 7,000 flight attendants.

Overall, they found that nearly 7% of deaths among flight attendants and pilots were due to radiation-related cancers, a proportion higher than that of any other profession. Nuclear power plant workers ranked 12th on the list, researchers noted.

Flight attendants had a 50% higher risk of radiation-related cancers compared to other careers, and pilots a 36% higher risk.

Risks for specific types of cancer included:

• Breast cancer, 61% higher for flight attendants and 57% higher for pilots

• Central nervous system cancer, 51% higher for flight attendants and 28% higher for pilots

• Prostate cancer, 75% higher for flight attendants and 38% higher for pilots

• Melanoma, 63% higher for flight attendants and 28% higher for pilots

“Pilots and flight attendants accrue an estimated 3 to 6 millisieverts per year of cosmic radiation, greatly exceeding the 0.4 millisieverts received by an air traveler taking 10 cross-country round-trip flights per year,” the researchers wrote.

By comparison, a home contaminated by the radioactive gas radon causes nearly 2.3 millisieverts of exposure to residents, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

A single full-body CT scan accrues 10 millisieverts of radiation exposure, and a head CT scan 2 millisieverts, the EPA says.

Exposure to less than 1 millisievert per year above natural background radiation is considered safe, according to the Institute for Environmental Research and Education. 

“The Federal Aviation Administration formally recognizes aircrew as occupationally exposed to ionizing radiation, yet unlike other radiation-exposed workers or aircrew in other countries, U.S. aircrew are not subject to federal dose limits or monitoring requirements,” the research team noted.

“These findings support consideration of occupational radiation protections for aircrew members commensurate with their exposure level,” researchers concluded.

These results cannot be explained by “the romanticism of a bygone era — the 1960s and 1970s image of the sun-bronzed aviator enjoying extended layovers in sunny locations,” according to an accompanying editorial co-written by Catherine Olsen, an associate professor studying cancer control at the University of Queensland in Australia.

“While recreational sun exposure may have been a factor in melanoma risk in earlier generations of aircrew, the modern aviation industry bears little resemblance to that golden age,” the editorial argued. “Tighter scheduling, reduced layover times, and the unglamorous reality of back-to-back sectors have largely eliminated the long, sun-drenched stopovers of popular imagination.

“Yet melanoma and (skin) cancer rates in pilots remain elevated, suggesting that the cockpit itself, rather than the poolside, may be the more important exposure environment,” the editorial said.

High-altitude ionizing radiation exposure can cause DNA to break down in ways that promotes cancer, the editorial said, although it added that more studies will be needed to better understand flight crews’ exposure.

In the meantime, the editorial urged doctors to make sure that members of aircrews keep up with cancer screenings and pay special attention to any early warning signs of cancer.

More information

The Environmental Protection Agency has more on radiation sources and doses.

SOURCES: Harvard Medical School, news release, Aug. 17, 2026; JAMA Internal Medicine, Aug. 17, 2026