Exposure of aircraft passengers to radiation from transported radioactive goods.

This paper reports on radiation measurements in passenger aircraft of the Lufthansa airline, in which thermoluminescence dosimeters were attached for about 2 to 3 weeks, under the seats of passengers. Of the 2247 dosimeters suitable for evaluation, 186 showed excess exposure between 1 and 35 mR, and a mean exposure of 5.15 mR. Most of these 186 dosimeters had been attached under seats located over the freight compartments. The yearly population dose calculated from these data amounts to about 40 manrem and is negligibly small in comparison with the yearly population dose of about 7 x 106 manrem due to the natural radiation background. It was also found that the yearly population dose resulting from increased exposure of aircraft passengers to cosmic radiation (amounting on average to between 25 and 140 μR/h depending on the flight altitude, occasionally as much as 210 μR/h) amounts to about 2300 manrem and is thus about 60 times higher than the population dose from the transport of radioactive goods.This paper reports on radiation measurements in passenger aircraft of the Lufthansa airline, in which thermoluminescence dosimeters were attached for about 2 to 3 weeks under the seats of passengers. Of the 2247 dosimeters suitable for evaluation, 186 showed excess exposure between 1 and 35 mR, and a mean exposure of 5. 15 mR. Most of these 186 dosimeters had been attached under seats located over the freight compartments. The yearly population dose calculated from these data amounts to about 40 manrem and is negligibly small in comparison with the yearly population dose of about 7 multiplied by 10**6 manrem due to the natural radiation background. It was also found that the yearly population dose resulting from increased exposure of aircraft passengers to cosmic radiation (amounting an average to between 25 and 140 mu R/h depending on the flight altitude, occasionally as much as 210 mu R/h) amounts to about 2300 manrem and is thus about 60 times higher than the population dose from the transport of radioactive goods