Are Flight Attendants at Higher Risk for Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer?
Posted: Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Relative to the general population, flight cabin crew face unique environments, exposing staff to carcinogens. Consequently, it appears that flight attendants, compared with the general population, may have a higher prevalence of a variety of cancers, including breast, uterine, cervical, gastrointestinal, thyroid, melanoma, and notably non-melanoma skin cancers, according to recent study findings published in Environmental Health.
“Ours is the first study to report an elevated rate of non-melanoma skin cancer in a U.S. flight attendant cohort,” according to Eileen McNeely, PhD, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and colleagues. “The [European Union] already evaluates radiation exposure among flight attendants, which our findings show may be an important step toward lowering cancer risk among this work population,” she noted in an institutional press release.
Dr. McNeely and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study using self-reported health information from the Harvard Flight Attendant Study (FAHS) and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). A total of 5,366 U.S. flight attendants completed surveys for the FAHS (2014–2015), and 2,729 U.S. residents completed the NHANES (2013–2014). Whereas the prevalence of non-melanoma skin cancer among the FAHS cohort was 10.6% (inclusive of both female and male attendants), that of the NHANES cohort was 4.7%. Additionally, there were increased rates of non-melanoma skin cancer with each 5-year job tenure as a female flight attendant.