SHINE Executive Director Eileen McNeely, Principal Investigator of the Harvard Flight Attendant Health Study, is interviewed by BBC News World Service’s Caroline Steel on the health impacts of air travel.
Compared to the entirety of human existence, our history of flying in aeroplanes is very short indeed. So what does this fast form of travel do to bodies that have evolved for land-based living? That’s what listener Sofia wants to know after working as a flight attendant for over a decade.
What effect does working at 35,000 feet have on one’s health? How disruptive to your circadian rhythms is hopping across ten time zones in less than 24 hours? What’s happening in our stomachs if a crisp packet blows up to the point of popping as the cabin pressure changes? And why do we feel so darn dehydrated when we get off a plane?
Join Caroline on her journey as CrowdScience takes to the skies to find out what frequent flyers need to know when it comes cosmic ionising radiation and what we can all do to make that next flight a little more pleasant.
Listen to the podcast.