Radiation doses due to human exposure to cosmic radiation in the Republic of Croatia.

The annual per caput whole body equivalent dose for the world's population on ground level in areas on normal background from natural sources of radiation is approximately 2.4 mSv, 0.3 mSv of which is due to cosmic rays. As the intensity of cosmic radiation increases with altitude, the subpopulation of aircraft flight crews and frequent flyers may receive an additional equivalent dose of up to 1 mSv during commercial flights. The estimated annual collective equivalent dose from aircraft flights for the Republic of Croatia is about 4 man Sv, whereas the annual collective effective dose due to the cosmic radiation component of normal background radiation is approximately 1200 man Sv. Future development of hypersonic aircraft, which would fly orbital trajectories above the Earth's atmosphere would cause a significant increase of doses. Also, future utilization of extended space missions might be limited by high equivalent doses to space travellers.