Cosmic radiation exposure on Canadian-based commercial airline routes

As a result of the recent recommendations of ICRP 60 and in anticipation of possible regulation on occupational exposure of commercial aircrew, a two-part investigation was carried out over a one-year period to determine the total dose equivalent on representative Canadian-based flight routes. As part of the study, a dedicated scientific measurement flight (using both a conventional suite of powered detectors and passive dosimetry) was used to characterise the complex mixed radiation field and to intercompare the various instrumentation. In the other part of the study, volunteer aircrew carried (passive) neutron bubble detectors during their routine flight duties. From these measurements, the total dose equivalent was derived for a given route with a knowledge of the neutron fraction as determined from the scientific flight and computer code (CARI-LF) calculations. This investigation has yielded an extensive database of over 3100 measurements providing the total dose equivalent for 385 different routes. By folding in flight frequency information and the accumulated flight hours, the annual occupational exposures of 26 flight crew have also been determined. This study has indicated that most Canadian-based domestic and international aircrew will exceed the proposed annual ICRP 60 public limit of 1 mSv.y(-1), but will be well below the occupational limit of 20 mSv.y(-1).