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This Is How Much Radiation You Actually Receive while Flying
Why pilots receive more radiation than nuclear plant workers
When you think about jobs with high radiation exposure, you might picture workers in nuclear power plants or hospital technicians surrounded by X-ray machines.
After all, isn’t standing next to a Uranium rod or performing dozens of X-ray examinations a day a guaranteed way to rack up your annual dose of radiation? Surprisingly, neither of these groups tops the list.
Instead, the people who receive some of the highest doses of radiation in their workplace are actually long-haul airline pilots.
But why is that? The answer has to do with cosmic rays — high-energy particles that constantly bombard the Earth from deep space.
Usually, when we are close to sea level, the layers of air above us absorb most of these rays and prevent them from reaching us. But when you sit on an airplane 11 km or 6 miles above sea level, there is less air left above you to protect you, meaning more of the cosmic rays make it to your body and can be absorbed by it.
