Dark side of frequent travelling

[Foreigner]

Negative impact of frequent travel brought to attention:

Frequent Travel Damaging To Health And Wellbeing - Study


I suppose same could be said of those working on airlines...crew

 

[RooFlyer]

Lost me at "social media".

 

[Brisbane Flyer]

But really its for those that work...Its a four letter word banned at my house.

Cheers
BF

 

[samh004]

Only experienced distance from family networks once, and it was a simple fix of asking to be moved to an earlier flight to see them sooner!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

OMG!

They found that the images portrayed do not take into account the damaging side effects of frequent travel such as jet-lag, deep vein thrombosis, radiation exposure, stress, loneliness and distance from community and family networks.

How long till we get airplane 'plain packaging'?? No glamorous airline logo... just olive in colour, and 90% of the aircraft to be covered by appropriate pictures of DVT and radiation poisoning?

 

[medhead]

Radiation poisoning? Please. The exposure, even for crew, is well within the normal range of environmental radiation exposure on the ground. No such thing as poisoning at those levels!

 

[footy99]

My summary of that article is:

"Half my Facebook friends post all these awesome looking pictures when travelling. And the ads in magazines look amazing. It can't be that great. Actually, it's probably killing them!"

There's pros and cons to it. IME the former outweighs the latter most of the time.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

For most crew it's a way of life and something they enjoy doing. If you ground a frequent flyer or crew member for 6 months - look at the psychological impact it has on them vs flying frequently. One opens the mind and creates joy - the other is rather depressing for them.

 

[Isochronous]

For most crew it's a way of life and something they enjoy doing. If you ground a frequent flyer or crew member for 6 months - look at the psychological impact it has on them vs flying frequently. One opens the mind and creates joy - the other is rather depressing for them.

I can't bear to imagine going that long without flying/travel!

 

[andmiz]

Radiation poisoning? Please. The exposure, even for crew, is well within the normal range of environmental radiation exposure on the ground. No such thing as poisoning at those levels!

It's actually monitored for our crew, and if it exceeds a limit of 4.8 mSv for a rolling 12-months, our schedule is actively managed so it never exceeds 6 mSv. Normal background radiation is about 2-3 mSv per annum.

 

[medhead]

It's actually monitored for our crew, and if it exceeds a limit of 4.8 mSv for a rolling 12-months, our schedule is actively managed so it never exceeds 6 mSv. Normal background radiation is about 2-3 mSv per annum.

That's good. I understand most airlines use the monte carlo simulation estimates of radiation dose. There has been a fair bit of debate over whether crew dose should even been monitored. The debate is around crew dose being in a kind of grey area between planned exposure and natural exposure. Anyway, best not open that can of worms.

Those levels are typical dose constraints that get applied in a range of workplaces. I'm not sure 4.8 mSv would be a limit, as the occupational exposure limit is 20 mSv, more a target constraint.

At those levels radiation poisoning simply is not a thing. the worldwide average natural background is 2-3 mSv per year. but there are places in the world that have much higher background. Kerala in India 10 to 15 mSv per year, Guarapari, Brazil 30 to 40 mSv per year and Ramsar, Iran over 100 mSv (even over 200 mSv) per year. While the worldwide average is 2 to 3 mSv per year, adding on another 4.8 mSv is still within the range of normal environmental radiation exposure that people experience.


I guess it would be rude to ask which airline and if they need radiation experts?

 

[Awesom Andy]

Flying has improved my family and community networks - I'm actually there in person improving relationships (in different countries) rather than relying on other communication tools.

 

[PLANT]

Whats Fukushima crew numbers?

 

[medhead]

Whats Fukushima crew numbers?

Not sure what you mean. Seems very off topic. The general population in the area is in a big mess because of pretty shocking scaremongering. Numbers I've heard is moving people back into areas that might give upto 20 mSv per year. But clowns come out with words like radiation poisoning and contamination, creating totally unnecessary social stigma that has resulted in people needlessly killing themselves. Heard some big numbers around this at one conference. In terms of the workers, I'm not going to guess numbers from my memory.

 

[medhead]

Here's a dark side of frequent travelling.

Planning for an international conference with 2 others. The people paying offered to do all the bookings for us. In deciding whether to do accept someone asked for my opinion on flight options, as the frequent flyer. I popped out some rambling thoughts, including lounge access and earning details, along with 6 flight options with varying timings and hotel requirements. The flight options were pretty simple, basically direct 2 flight in each direction, single airline. I didn't include the 8 flight, 4 transit city option that earns 400 SC.

Next thing I hear is one of the others writing back to the people paying for the trip to say, yes please book for us.
Perhaps I've lost perspective of normal when it comes to flying. Doesn't everyone spend days looking at 100s of options?

 

[harvyk]

Whilst my flying has changed from quantity to quality, back when quantity was a thing I would say the biggest problem was jealousy from friends.

I guess for me I have a fair bit of control over when I travel, so I can ensure I don't travel over important dates for the family. Had I started missing out on things like birthdays and anniversaries things might be a little different (and the Mrs certainly wouldn't have been happy, her dad used to always be traveling and thus missed out on quite a lot of important dates).

 

[DrA]

I get a lot of hassle at immigration about my frequent overseas travels. I think if it was travel to Europe or North America, it would be a different story. But with a passport full of visas from West Africa, South America, and Central Asia, it causes me no end of interrogation at border checkpoints. It is what it is, and I know they're just doing their jobs, but sometimes it's hard not to get aggressive in return.

I've also had several relationship breakdowns because I spend 6-7 months a year travelling. I have never made any secret of the fact that that's what my life is like, but I don't think some people really understand the reality of it until they're faced with it head on. I wish people wouldn't get angry with me over it, I make it clear upfront that I'm not around a whole lot.

Honestly, I see more of my family when I'm travelling as they live all over the place, and I can usually arrange my flights to go visit them. When I was Perth-based, not a single family member came to visit me in 10 years. I might travel more living on the east-coast, but the west coast was a far more isolated and soul-sucking experience for me.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

OMG!How long till we get airplane 'plain packaging'?? No glamorous airline logo... just olive in colour, and 90% of the aircraft to be covered by appropriate pictures of DVT and radiation poisoning?

Quite amusing, MEL_Traveller! Made me smile, despite the fact I totally agree with the smokes wrappings!

Radiation poisoning? Please.

They misspelt R-A-D-I-A-T-I-O-N...........it's meant to be A-L-C-O-H-O-L!

ground a frequent flyer or crew member for 6 months - look at the psychological impact it has on them

I must admit, I moan about the flying and to be fair, many have rose coloured glasses on when they think about frequent flying, but I was surprised when I hadn't flown for a few months early last year, that I was actually, almost, maybe missing it. :shock:

Whilst my flying has changed from quantity to quality

I think when you fly enough, it's a natural progression that quantity is supplemented by quality. My flying sectors have increased, but so too has the quality!

 

[Happy Trails]

They misspelt R-A-D-I-A-T-I-O-N...........it's meant to be A-L-C-O-H-O-L!

Not at all.
I have it on good authority that Champagne is the perfect antidote for high-altitude radiation poisoning (G&T will suffice if the bubbles are not available).
It's certainly works for me.

 

[medhead]

Not at all.
I have it on good authority that Champagne is the perfect antidote for high-altitude radiation poisoning (G&T will suffice if the bubbles are not available).
It's certainly works for me.

I thought they were antidotes in general.