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This Common Job Has the Highest Cancer Risk in America

Flight attendants ranked above pilots and nuclear workers as researchers linked years of cosmic radiation exposure to cancer deaths.

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Nuclear technologists work surrounded by radioactive materials all day. Radiographers operate X-ray equipment. And yet neither profession tops the list of jobs with the highest radiation-related cancer risk in America. Flight attendants do.

Researchers pulled death certificate data for 12.7 million Americans across 503 occupations and sorted the cancer deaths by type in a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. Flight attendants came out on top for radiation-related cancer mortality, with 6.9% of deaths in that group falling into that category. Pilots were second at 6.7%. Nuclear medicine technologists, the people........

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