Whether for work or vacation, more than three billion people fly on airplanes each year; that's nearly half the world’s population. Still, when we fasten our seatbelts and order overpriced snacks, many of us don’t take some harmful factors into consideration. Fear of crashes may be the number one reason travelers are worried of flying, but there are many other dangers that are often overlooked. As convenient as air travel is, there are some risks that need to be assessed before boarding your next airplane.
Jet Lag
Once your body gets into a comfortable cycle, it can be harmful to make drastic changes to it. When your brain thinks it’s in one time zone but your body is in another, it can make it nearly impossible to sleep. Messing with your sleep cycle on a regular basis can have a serious impact on your health, causing fatigue, mood disorders, and, in some cases, cancer. If you don’t fly often, it can be easy to get back into your normal routine. However, if you never give yourself a chance to correct your sleep patterns, you are putting yourself in harm’s way.
Disease
As previously mentioned, more than three billion people travel via flights each year. Every time you fly, you are exposing yourself to bacteria from all over the world. High altitudes can lower the body’s natural immune system, making it easier to contract illnesses while traveling. Most people still fly even if they are probably too sick to do so. One study by the Journal of Environmental Health Research found that air travel increases your risk of catching a cold more than one hundred times over the baseline of simply staying home.
Permanent Hearing Damage
This should go without saying, but airplanes are loud. You find yourself subjected to roaring engines, screaming babies, and often increased volume on personal electronic devices. The further back you are seated on the plane, the more damage you are doing to your eardrums, as the noise level is roughly 100 decibels. To block out the engines, many people crank up their headphones, which only makes the problem worse. Your ears also have a difficult time adjusting to altitude change, which is why you may have to “pop” them after flying.
“Economy-Class Syndrome”
Spending large amounts of time in a confined space is even worse for you than you’d think. Sitting completely still in a cramped airline seat doesn’t allow for proper blood flow, which can lead to serious health risks such as blood clots. Your body is meant to move around, particularly your extremities. While this is fine every once in awhile, frequent air travel has been known to cause traveler’s thrombosis or “economy-class syndrome,” the development of blood clots within the veins of the legs that can become loose and create blockages in the heart. If you do have to travel frequently, make sure you stand up at least once an hour. Simply going to the bathroom or doing calf flexes can diminish your chances of traveler's thrombosis.
Radiation
Although it sounds like something ridiculous your mother would warn you about, radiation caused by cosmic rays is a legitimate health concern. The radiation levels on longer flights are similar to that of being x-rayed. Although this sounds harmless, if you fly often, all that radiation can add up. Partially for this reason, pilots and flight attendants have a higher chance of developing cancer. The risk of harmful radiation increases as you fly closer to the North Pole, so international flights have a higher probability of exposure. In fact, this risk of exposure is even great than exposure to radiation from the security screenings in airports.
