A recent study conducted by researchers from Harvard, Boston and Cambridge Medical School determined the profession that is exposed to a higher risk of cancer development. Is it yours? Check here.
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19/08/2026
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Qis the type of employment usually associated with an increased risk of cancer development? It can already rule out professions whose workers spend a lot of time in nuclear medicine facilities or X-ray departments.
Recent studies with researchers from Harvard, Boston and Cambridge Medical School show that these are not the professions with the highest level of exposure to potentially carcinogenic radiation.
In fact, according to experts people who are more susceptible to cancer development are even the ones who are the furthest away from these infrastructures.
The analysis published in the JAMA Internal Medicine, cited by Science Alert, describes that “for many it can be somewhat surprising.”.
After analysis of more than 500 types of occupations, which has been identified with “higher radiation-related mortality rate” is flight attendant. And to occupy second place on the podium are the pilots.
But how do you associate this risk with a plane trip?
As described by the Centers for the Control and Prevention of American Diseases, everything relates to cosmic radiation, “whose exposure is much higher in the sky than we receive in the ground, thanks to the effects of the atmosphere, which acts as a shield, which absorbs and spreads high energy particles from space” and thus fosters greater ease in the development of cancer cells.
“ Air crew members receive the highest average annual effective dose of ionizing radiation than any other occupational group in the USA, mainly due to cosmic rays found at commercial flight altitudes,” explains the authors of the study led by the surgeon and health investigator at Vishal Patel, Harvard Medical School.