Crews of commercial airlines are exposed to a higher level of background cosmic radiation during flight time than they would receive on the ground.A single round-trip, coast-to-coast flight gives a dose of about 0.012 rems.If a flight attendant made 200 such flights in one year, how would his/her annual dose compare with a normal annual exposure on the ground of 3.6 mSv? (100 rem =1 Sv)

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

First, convert the dose per flight from rems to Sieverts (Sv) using the conversion factor 1 rem = 0.01 Sv. Thus, 0.012 rems/flight = 0.00012 Sv/flight. For 200 flights, the total dose is 200 * 0.00012 Sv = 0.024 Sv or 24 mSv. Comparing this to the normal annual exposure of 3.6 mSv, the flight attendant's dose is a bit less than 10 times more.

Crews of Commercial Airlines Are Exposed to a Higher Level