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missedthecue 3 hours ago  [ - ]

  Cancer                     Flight attendants   Pilots
  ------------------------------------------------------
  All radiation-related      1.50x               1.36x
  Breast cancer              1.61x               1.57x
  CNS / brain cancer         1.51x               1.28x
  Multiple myeloma           1.34x               1.08x
  Leukemia                   1.12x               1.27x
  Lymphoma                   1.19x               1.04x
  Prostate cancer            1.75x               1.38x
  Melanoma                   1.63x               1.28x
  Nonmelanoma skin cancer    1.50x               1.22x
  Other cancers              1.21x               0.97x
It was a cross-sectional analysis of U.S. death certificates from 2020-2024, covering ~13 million deaths across 503 occupations, including roughly 14,000 pilots and 7,000 flight attendants. The analysis adjusted for age at death, sex, race/ethnicity, education, and marital status.

So in other words, breast cancer was the cause of death at a rate 61% higher for flight attendants than for the comparison population of other occupations.

leonidasrup an hour ago  [ - ]

It's bad we don't access to the full study, because we could learn more about the methodology.

Did the study adjust for socio-economic factors? The average income of pilots is much higher then average income of flight attendants, income affects lifestyle which affect cancer rates and access to healthcare.

When comparing occupations, how do the rates of cancer of pilots/flight attendants compare to miners, especially underground miners? Miners got quite lot of radiation exposure from radon in certain regions. How about workers in chemical plants?

francisofascii an hour ago  [ - ]

I suspect they don't have regular sleep schedules, which partially explains the elevated risk. Nurses and 3rd shift workers all have elevated cancer risk.