The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) had in 1990 recommended that civilian aircrew be classified as being occupationally exposed to low-dose ionizing radiation, in view of their increased exposure to cosmic rays at altitude. In 2000, the European Union had gone ahead with legislation which requires all European airlines to monitor cosmic radiation levels during flight ...

Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) has been recognised for some time. In the military environment one group of personnel at risk are Army helicopter aircrew who are exposed to continuous noise levels of up to 100 dB(A) in flight. The evidence for the damaging effect of this occupational noise is reviewed and some of the difficulties in drawing conclusions are highlighted. The current protection ...

Introduction The use of soft contact lenses in flight by RAF aircrew has recently been the subject of a trial at the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine (lAM). The trial is complete but the report is yet to be published. The Army is the only service to permit some pilots to fly wearing contact lenses. Currently 7 Army pilots are allowed to do so. Because of the recent interest in this aspect of ...

INTRODUCTION [corrected] Cardiovascular disease has the potential to lead to sudden in-flight incapacitation and permanent grounding. The aims of this study are to examine the relationships between lifestyle, job stress and blood lipid levels of male aircrew personnel of a Korean airline and to identify which factors influence their hyperlipidemia. METHODS Two hundred sixteen male aircrew per...

BACKGROUND: Middle ear (ME) barotraumas are the most common condition in aviation medicine, sometimes seriously compromising flight safety. Considering this and ever-increasing amount of commercial aviation, a detailed overview is warranted. METHODS: In survey study, an anonymous, electronic questionnaire was distributed to aircrew three major airlines operating Finland ( N 3799), covering 93% ...

An on-going investigation using a tissue-equivalent proportional counter (TEPC) has been carried out to measure the ambient dose equivalent rate of the cosmic radiation exposure of aircrew during a solar cycle. A semi-empirical model has been derived from these data to allow for the interpolation of the dose rate for any global position. The model has been extended to an altitude of up to 32 km...