Airplane © Sean MacEntee
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British scientist Mike Lockwood claims that fliers on long-haul flights are facing a greater risk of cancer due to an increase in the number of solar energetic particles and galactic cosmic rays.
While it sounds like something out of a Star Trek episode, Lockwood appears to be ligit. He writes in the Journal of Geophysical Research,
The supersonic nature of the solar wind means open solar flux can only be removed by near-sun magnetic reconnection between open solar magnetic field lines.
In non-scientific terms? If you are frequently flying on long haul flights over the north pole–Seoul to New York, London to San Francisco, Chicago to Moscow””it might give you cancer.
Get the entire story at AOL travel.