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By Marcus Kabel
FORT WORTH, Texas, Mar 20 (Reuters) - Airline travelers should not be worried about high-altitude exposure to radiation from space and the sun, US experts said on Monday.
Researchers at an American Airlines and pilots union seminar on cosmic radiation said the issue was worth monitoring, especially for flight crew members who spend more time in the air than the average traveler. American is a unit of Fort Worth-based AMR Corp.
But government and airline scientists said existing evidence does not point to cosmic radiation as a major health issue.
"I don't think it poses such a risk that people should be concerned about flying," said Wallace Friedberg, head of radiobiology research at the Federal Aviation Administration's Civil Aeromedical Institute.
"When they're flying, they're not running the risk of driving a car," he said. The point was echoed by several speakers who said known health risks from other activities were far greater.
Scientists have studied the issue more as the booming global airline industry carries millions of people a year to high altitudes, where the thinner atmosphere is a weaker shield against cosmic radiation.
Several studies have suggested links between the time spent in the air by pilots and flight attendants and a range of diseases, including cancers such as melanoma, leukemia and breast cancer that could be caused by radiation damage.
But Gary Butler, a radiation researcher on leave as an Air Canada pilot to attend medical school, said those links were tentative and needed far more study.
"If you ask the average line pilot, yes, they're aware of cosmic radiation, but their No. 1 health concern is chronic fatigue," Butler said.
"There isn't the research out there at this point to back legislation," he added, referring to calls from some pilots groups for federal limits on radiation exposure for flight crews and government-mandated health monitoring.
The European Union issued a directive in 1996, which member countries are still enacting, that sets a maximum annual exposure for flight crews. That level is roughly the equivalent of 67 chest X-rays, and less for pregnant women because a fetus is more vulnerable to cell damage from radiation.
In the United States, the FAA has not mandated limits but does support a nonbinding recommendation that would increase the EU's annual exposure limit more than threefold.
The FAA's Friedberg said typical flight crew exposures were far lower than those limits.
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