Medical Radiology and Radiation Safety. 2025. Vol. 70. № 6
DOI:10.33266/1024-6177-2025-70-6-28-39
E.I. Matkevich1, V.I. Burmistrov2, I.V. Ivanov2, 3
Assessment of Radiation Doses of Aircraft Flight Personnel
and Justification of Measures to Reduce them
1 A.I. Burnazyan Federal Medical Biophysical Center, Moscow, Russia
2 I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University), Moscow, Russia
3 State Scientific-Research Taste Institute of Military Medicine, Saint-Petersburg, Russia
Contact person: I.V. Ivanov, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
ABSTRACT
Relevance: With a deep and extensive analysis of ionizing radiation levels characteristic of outer space and determining radiation hazard factors for astronauts, the issues of assessing the radiation situation in air travel also remain relevant.
Purpose: Was to assess the radiation doses of aircraft flight personnel over a year of professional activity and to justify measures to reduce them.
Material and methods: When calculating equivalent radiation doses during aviation flights, data from the RUSCOSMICS server was used, based on 90 hours of flights per calendar month with an annual flight time of 900 hours. The levels of the effective radiation dose of flight personnel during annual medical examinations for the purpose of medical flight examination are analyzed.
Results: It was found that the radiation dose of flight personnel amounted to 362 μSv for a calendar month, 3.62 mSv for 10 months of the year, which is higher than the average annual limit for the population, but does not exceed the sanitary standards for aircraft crews (5 mSv). The economic effect achieved by reducing the radiation dose to flight personnel from reducing the long-term effects of exposure determines the relevance and practical importance of improving measures to reduce the dose burden on aircraft flight personnel. A set of measures to reduce radiation doses to flight personnel should include: accounting for radiation doses to flight personnel during air travel and monitoring compliance with regulatory levels, reducing radiation doses to flight personnel during medical examinations, and reducing radiation doses to flight personnel by improving aircraft radiation protection.
Conclusion: The analysis of the total annual radiation doses to flight personnel during air travel in conditions of background solar activity and solar flares, as well as during medical diagnostic examinations, justifies the need for measures to reduce them in the main areas: accounting for radiation doses to flight personnel during air travel, monitoring compliance with regulatory levels, optimizing radiation diagnostic methods to exclude unjustified radiation exposure of flight personnel during medical examinations, as well as the development of promising design solutions to improve the anti-radiation protection of the aircraft cabin.
Keywords: aviation flights, flight personnel, professional exposure, medical examinations, radiation doses, radiation safety standards, radiation dose reduction
For citation: Matkevich EI, Burmistrov VI, Ivanov IV. Assessment of Radiation Doses of Aircraft Flight Personnel and Justification of Measures to Reduce them. Medical Radiology and Radiation Safety. 2025;70(6):28–39. (In Russian). DOI:10.33266/1024-6177-2025-70-6-28-39
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Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Financing. The study had no sponsorship.
Contribution. Article was prepared with equal participation of the authors.
Article received: 20.07.2025. Accepted for publication: 25.08.2025.