Higher Rates of Breast Cancer Among Flight Attendants: Does Cosmic Radiation Play a Role?

Flight attendants are, on average, more likely to develop breast cancer than women in other professions. A review of nine studies shows that there are approximately 40 percent more cases of breast cancer among female flight attendants. Scientists still do not know exactly why this is the case. One possible explanation is cosmic radiation, to which people on airplanes are exposed. This radiation comes from space and reaches Earth, but our atmosphere blocks a large portion of it. The higher you go, the greater the exposure. As a result, pilots and flight attendants are exposed to more cosmic radiation during their work than people who work on the ground.

A High-Profile Lawsuit

A 59-year-old former Air France flight attendant was awarded compensation by a French court after she claimed that she had developed breast cancer as a result of her work. Over the course of 30 years, she had logged approximately 12,600 flight hours, more than half of which were on night flights. She was able to convince the court, but that does not mean it has been proven that her breast cancer was caused by cosmic radiation. After all, a court ruling is not the same as scientific proof. Researchers also see other possible explanations for the higher incidence of breast cancer among flight attendants. A disrupted day-night rhythm, for example. Night flights, irregular work schedules, and regularly crossing time zones could potentially disrupt the biological clock. A more obvious explanation is the fact that flight attendants are, on average, more likely to be childless, and if they do have children, they tend to have them at a later age. Childless women and women who have their first child at a later age are at a higher risk of breast cancer than other women.

No evidence

None of these explanations has yet been conclusively proven. For example, a large study of more than 6,000 female flight attendants found no link between breast cancer and estimated exposure to cosmic radiation. Another large study from 2022 concluded that neither cosmic radiation nor disruption of the day-night rhythm adequately explains the higher incidence of breast cancer among flight attendants. That leaves one possibility: whether or not to have children. It is certainly not the case that female passengers—even frequent flyers—are at greater risk of breast cancer due to cosmic radiation high in the sky.

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