1. Introduction
Abstract
Journal of the ICRU Vol 10 No 2 (2010) Report 84 Oxford University Press doi:10.1093/jicru/ndq018 Aircraft crews are exposed to elevated levels of cosmic radiation of galactic and solar origins and secondary radiations produced in the atmosphere and in the aircraft and its contents. The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) in Publication 60 (ICRP, 1991) recommended that exposures of aircraft crew to cosmic radiation in commercial jet aircraft be part of occupational exposure. This recommendation also applies to spacecraft crew. The Commission noted that the only practical remedial measures were controlling ï¬ying time and route selection. The ICRP maintains this view (ICRP, 2007). Some international regulations, in particular in the European Union (see EU, 1996), and various national regulations, require that: (i) Aircraft crew are informed of the health risk that their work involves. (ii) In the case of a pregnant crew member, once the pregnancy is declared, the protection of the fetus should be comparable to that provided for members of the public. The employer must plan future occupational exposures such that the equivalent dose to the fetus will be as low as reasonably achievable and that it will be unlikely that this dose will exceed