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 stewardess made 200 such flights in one year, how would her annual dose compare with a normal annual exposure on the ground of 3.6 mSv? (100 rem = 1 Sv)

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Quizplus · Accepted Answer

First, convert the dose per flight into Sieverts: 0.012 rems/flight = 0.00012 Sv/flight. For 200 flights, the total dose is 0.00012 Sv/flight * 200 flights = 0.024 Sv or 24 mSv. The normal annual exposure is 3.6 mSv. Therefore, the stewardess's annual dose is a bit less than 10 times more than the normal annual exposure.

Crews of Commercial Airlines Are Exposed to a Higher Level