Why is there a Radiological Protection Committee?

Flight crew members have one of the professions, which subject them to the highest radiation exposure during their daily job routine. While in 2009 the doses of the approximately 30,000 employees in nuclear power plants added up to a total of 15.4 Sv, the doses for the 36,000 members of flight crews added up to 86 Sv. In other words: With 86 Sv in the year 2009, flight crew members, who have a percentage of approx. 10% (36,000) of the persons occupationally exposed to radiation (2009: 334,331 persons), received two thirds of the radiation doses (collective dose) of 130 Sv added up among all persons occupationally exposed to radiation.

What objectives does the Radiological Protection Committee have?

The purpose of our work is to

• process the scientific principles of radiological protection with regard to cockpit crew members,

• to draw adapted conclusions from these principles for the flight crews and to communicate said conclusions so that on the one hand, a radiation hysteria and on the other hand, arrogance in terms of radiation can be prevented; this ultimately contributes to deliberate, independent radiological protection for the crew and passengers,

• to raise and maintain awareness for the special radiological protection problems of flight crew members with the decision-makers in politics and administrative bodies. Standards, which eliminate competitive advantages as a result of fewer radiological protection precautions, are created with the help of statutory and administrative regulations.

How can these objectives be achieved?

The fundamental principles of our work were defined in the VC policy “radiological protection for flight crew members”. Our committee consists of active airline pilots, who are supported by a physicist with many years of professional experience in radiological protection.

We research scientific publications, which are relevant for flight crew members, on a routine basis, participate in corresponding academic functions and strive to pass these findings onto the VC members in the form of articles in VC-Info or as a current newsletter.

We have routine contact to the bodies relevant to radiological protection: Federal Aviation Office, EU commission (Directorate-General for Energy and Transport), Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS), Commission on Radiological Protection, International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP-Task Group 83- ), United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), European Radiation Dosimetry Group (EURADOS), German-Swiss Professional Association on Radiological Protection.

Last but not least, consulting with employee representation on radiological protection questions of course belongs to our tasks as well.

In addition to our activities in the VC, we also cooperate with the ECA as well as the IFALPA on an international level. The IFALPA policy on radiological protection and the IFALPA Medical Briefing Leaflet “Cosmic Radiation” were developed with our relevant assistance.

Are you interested in working in this field or do you have any questions or comments for the Radiological Protection Committee?

Any member of the VC, who would like to actively participate in the further development of radiological protection in aviation, can become a member of our committee. Prerequisite for this is the willingness to be thoroughly introduced to this topic, which requires a wide range of knowledge from space physics to radiation physics to medical topics; however, this should not be an insurmountable obstacle for an airline pilot. If this is the case, please send a brief message to the VC headquarters (office@vcockpit.de)  or contact us via email at agstr@vcockpit.de .

You can also send your questions or comments regarding radiological protection to the latter email address. We will make every effort to provide you with a pertinent response as quickly as possible.