Slashdot Mirror


Flying in Airplanes Exposes People To More Radiation Than Standing Next To a Nuclear Reactor (businessinsider.com)

Traveling the skies by jet lifts us far from the hustle and bustle of the world below. From a report: But many flyers don't know that soaring miles above Earth also takes us out of a vital protective cocoon -- and a little closer to a place where our cells can be pummeled by radiation from colliding stars, black holes, and more. You can't see these high-energy charged particles, but at any given moment, tens of thousands of them are soaring through space and slamming into Earth's atmosphere from all directions. Also called cosmic rays or cosmic ionizing radiation, the particles are the cores of atoms, such as iron and nickel, moving at nearly light-speed. They can travel for millions of years through space before randomly hitting Earth. These rays don't pose much of a risk to humans on Earth's surface, since the planet's atmosphere and magnetic field shield us from most of the threat.

1 of 275 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why is this being posted now? by arth1 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Even failed plants, aside from Chernobyl, have not harmed anyone from radiation. Everyone should know that as well, but they don't.

    Because it's not true, as in a bloody lie?

    Kyshtim, 1957, Estimated 200-8000 fatalities over the years
    Sellafield, 1957, Estimated 33 cancer deaths
    Idaho Falls, 1961, 3 dead
    Jaslovske Bohunice, 1976, 2 dead
    Three Mile Island, 1979, studies suggest a cancer rate increase of over 60% in affected areas.
    Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, 1999, 2 dead, more likely affected
    Fukushima, 2011, at least 2 dead, more likely affected from radiation poisoning.