AIRLINE flight crew should be categorised as nuclear industry workers because of their high altitude exposure to cosmic radiation, a pilots' representative said.
His call follows the publication of an article in which a noted Irish expert in human exposure to radiation warned that more severe restrictions should be placed on pregnant air crew on routes flying above eight kilometres (about 26,000 feet).
Prof Ian McAuley, associate professor of physics at Trinity College Dublin, in a paper published in Interpilot, the newsletter of the International Federation of Airline Pilots' Associations (IFAPA), said the exposure for most crew was not likely to exceed dose limits which applied to those occupationally exposed to radiation.
But "as a matter of prudence" radiation exposure should be assessed for air crew who routinely fly above altitudes of eight kilometres.
This would apply to most international airlines, including Aer Lingus's transatlantic routes. Prof McAuley said that "more severe" restrictions should be placed on pregnant air crew. It is possible that female air crew will be required not to undertake duties involving altitudes above eight kilometres once pregnancy has been declared."
Capt Ted Murphy, an Aer Lingus pilot who is deputy president of the IFAPA, called for air crew to be considered as workers involved in the nuclear industry. Commenting on Prof McAuley's paper, he said there was a danger that female cabin crew, not realising they were pregnant in the early stages, might fly and put the foetus in danger.
A spokeswoman for Aer Lingus said that once female cabin crew identified themselves as being pregnant, they were reassigned to ground duties.
Capt Murphy said that controls in the nuclear industry were very strict and the monitoring of individuals working in it was very organised.
The world's airlines were aware of the dangers of cosmic radiation to air crew "but it is not at all clear if they are going to do anything about it."
Cosmic rays are a naturally occurring form of ionising radiation that reaches the Earth's surface from space. Much of the radiation is absorbed by the atmosphere when at sea level, but at high altitudes there is less protection, and hence more cosmic ray exposure for air travellers.
Exposures are low but measurable. One flight from Dublin to New York, for example, causes a radiation exposure comparable to the estimated lifetime exposure of a typical Irish person to radioactive caesium deposited here following the Chernobyl nuclear accident.