How flying seriously messes with your mind

[HJ1an]

Travelling by plane has become an everyday activity – but our bodies and brains are still affected by it.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170919-how-flying-seriously-messes-with-your-mind

[jwocky]

I am always amazed how much new things they find out ... which were actually already discussed in the 70s and 80s ... and some even longer. For an example:

Every scuba diver learns not to dive the day after a flight and the day before a flight. Because air pressure in planes is lower and if you have a good deep dive the day before, you may have still some extra nitrogen dissolved in your blood and when the plane climbs you can get the bends. The British Admiralty dive tables for military divers in the Royal Navy for example carried a warning about this effect already in 1965. German, British, Russian and American dive instructions for military divers carried warnings already in late WWII. So ... the idea, that flying does there something physiologically is not as new as the article claims.

The same has to be said for psychological effects. People with claustrophobia aside, that is always something extra, but also very normal people put into a metal tube, be it a plane or a submarine for example, show a number of effects psychologically that remind a little bit of temporary claustrophobia. However, it is a milder form and the mind can suppress it, but that suppression comes at a price. Every other sensory input becomes slightly over weigh on an emotional level. Not only has an even otherwise quite stupid movie a stronger emotional impact, but also confrontations take quickly a harsher tone, as flight-attendants could confirm. Add to that, that many aircraft passengers are in an exceptional emotional situation anyway (leaving family or returning, flying rarely and therefore are excited, that kind of thing), and it is all not too surprising. But also those effects were already discussed starting in the 50s and on a professional psychological level since the 70s.

Sometimes, I really wonder, where some of those modern newspaper scientists were when all of this was done ... time machine backwards maybe?

[HJ1an]

Well, I knew some of these things too from before.

But I guess we need people to regularly bump them up into circulation every once in a while to inform those who're new.

[KL-666]

I have always known that one gets all sorts of infections in an aluminium tube. People would say: I got a desease from that country. Then i would say: No, you got it in that aluminium tube on your way back. I was just thinking about being packed in a narrow space. But now i learn that lower pressure makes you extra sensitive.

Kind regards, Vincent

[jwocky]

Oh, you didn't know that?

Dooh, now I have to unpack all the things I learned in the 70s and 80s and put them out as "new" ... naaaah, too lazy!

[HJ1an]

Article did not seem to mention we get about 4x more harmful radiation (the ionizing type) when in cruising flights compared to normal background radiation on ground. This means pilots and crew are more susceptible to radiation damage over time compared to those never left the ground. (but on the scale of things as radiation goes, it's not that much really..)

[jwocky]

The problem with radiation is, it adds up. A little now and then is in most cases not that problematic. A little every day is another story. The number of miscarriages by former flight-attendants is for example higher than even for radiology personal in a hospital. The University Munich did some studies, but they came under fire for it.

[HJ1an]

The problem with radiation is, it adds up. A little now and then is in most cases not that problematic. A little every day is another story. The number of miscarriages by former flight-attendants is for example higher than even for radiology personal in a hospital. The University Munich did some studies, but they came under fire for it.

True. I guess this would come under occupational hazards. Well *someone's* got to do the job!!

[jwocky]

Every kind of job has its occupational hazards. And when it comes to radiation, we know, there are areas in the world where people live with a higher natural radiation all the time. The Black Forest in Germany comes to mind, at least in some parts, there are areas in Anatolia. So flying is not the only thing, that exposes people to radiation over an extended period of time.
I remember, when the Chernobyl cloud reached Germany, in all German nuclear plants, the alerts went off because suddenly there was radioactivity coming in from the outside that was higher than allowed inside. And because now, everybody suddenly looked what was happening there, they tested also all drink water sources and found some wells that were used literally since centuries and found those wells have a higher radioactivity than allowed and it was not from Chernobyl, Chernobyl had only triggered the tests.

[HJ1an]

I meant the miscarriages in that study you mentioned. Along with a bunch of other occupational hazards of course. I'm aware there are places that are naturally radioactive. Wasn't there a particular beach that everyone goes to that had far higher radiation than normal levels? Even naturally occurring nucler reactors! Oklo comes to mind.