Cancer. Air hostesses, stewards and drivers particularly exposed – Health

According to US researchers, airline personnel would be particularly exposed to the risk of cancer (skin, thyroid, bad, etc.). A consequence potentially related to sleep deprivation.

Researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health conducted a survey of 5,366 American flight attendants (stewardesses, stewards, pilots). More than 15% have developed cancer. Thus the prevalence in this category would be higher than in the general population. For example, 3.4% of crew members developed bad cancer compared to 2.3% of the rest of the population. The same type of observation was performed for gastrointestinal tumors (0.47 vs. 0.27%), thyroid tumors (0.67 vs. 0.56%) or uterus (0.15%). against 0.13%).

Sleep Deprivation and Ionizing Radiation

Researchers have also shown that in women, any increase of five years working "in the air" is badociated with an increased risk of skin cancer (other than melanoma). ). In the female population, the probability of developing bad cancer was higher among those who had never had children and those who had three or more. According to Dr. Irina Mordukhovich, the main author of this work, "this may be due to a combination of circadian rhythm disturbances (such as sleep deprivation and irregular schedules) both at home and at work." Men would be affected by all forms of skin cancer. According to Dr. Mordukhovich, "this study opens the door to future research on the health of a less educated public yet exposed to probable carcinogens." The disruption of the circadian rhythm, but also "natural ionizing radiation (solar radiation, Ed) and possible chemical contaminants".