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Development of historical exposure estimates of cosmic radiation and circadian rhythm disruption for cohort studies of Pan Am flight attendants
Author(s) -
Waters Martha A.,
Grajewski Barbara,
Pinkerton Lynne E.,
Hein Misty J.,
Zivkovich Zachary
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/ajim.20738
Subject(s) - crew , circadian rhythm , medicine , cohort , aeronautics , confidence interval , demography , environmental health , engineering , sociology
Background The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is conducting cohort studies of flight crew employed by the former Pan American World Airways company (Pan Am) as part of an effort to examine flight crew workplace exposures and health effects. Flight crew are exposed to elevated levels of cosmic radiation and to disruption of circadian rhythm when flying across multiple time zones. Methods exist to calculate cosmic radiation effective doses on individual flights; however, only work histories which provided an employee's domicile (home base) history rather than a record of every flight flown were available. Methods/Results We developed a method for estimating individual cumulative domicile‐based cosmic radiation effective doses and two metrics for circadian rhythm disruption for each flight attendant: cumulative times zones crossed and cumulative travel time during the standard sleep interval. Conclusions The domicile‐exposure matrix developed was used to calculate exposure estimates for a cohort mortality study of former Pan Am flight attendants. Am. J. Ind. Med. 52:751–761, 2009. Published 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.