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Author
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Topic: Cancer rate among astronauts and cosmonauts
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Steve Smith
Member Posts: 503
From: Wichita, Kansas, USA
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 06-13-2005 01:05 PM
   
During a presentation at Kansas Aerodrome Days, Sam Gemar and I got to talking about astronaut health issues and radiation related problems. Gemar noted that astronauts have a higher than normal cancer rate (don't know if incidence or death). He noted that since they are generally healthy, and lead a good lifestyle that he presumed that this was from space exposure, although he granted that exposure to fumes and related factors as pilots, or a "hard charging life," could also contribute. I'd never heard this, although it doesn't surprise me. Can anyone shed more light on this? Has there been a published study? |
spaceuk
Member Posts: 2113
From: Staffs, UK
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 06-14-2005 06:23 AM
Biomedical studies have formed experiments on most missions since the very first manned flight — whether Russian, American or even Chinese now.On every U.S. mission I understand that both passive and active dosimeters are carried. The passive dosimeters are sealed units and are processed after flight, whereas the active dosimeters give an in-flight reading. The pocket sized active dosimeters can be read at any time. They measure in three ranges 0 to 200 millirads; 0 to 100 rad and 0 to 600 rad. The part of the body most at risk from radiation exposure is the lymphoid system followed by bone marrow, gonads (ovaries and testes), gastrointestinal epithelium and growing tissue. At one point (1970), NASA was advised to set an astronaut a limit of 400 rem for his/her entire astronaut career. A limit of 25 rem per mission (30 days) was also set but I do not know if this has ever changed? I imagine it must have — as crews are spending six months or more on the ISS? One statistic that NASA published was that citizens of Kerala, India had a greater exposure to radiation from the thorium in the sands of their city than did the shuttle astronauts. Anyone wanting delve further should refer to the reports and publications in the areas of biomedical results from various space missions and proceedings from the many space conferences devoted to these studies. A web search should provide some starting points. |
OV-105
Member Posts: 816
From: Ridgecrest, CA
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted 08-22-2014 03:57 PM
Is it me or does it have to due with the number of people that have flown in space, but most are dying of cancer. The question is, is it flight related or just a normal sample out of the population?Editor's note: Threads merged. |
Skylon
Member Posts: 274
From:
Registered: Sep 2010
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posted 08-23-2014 10:15 AM
I think "most" is a stretch. Just looking at the Group 1 through 5 astronauts; I came up with exactly three that died of cancer — Alan Shepard, Deke Slayton and Jack Swigert (if I am wrong please correct me). That is 3 out of 55, which doesn't seem that high. In terms of natural causes, heart disease seems to be the primary cause among the earlier astronauts, and probably similar for their entire generation. The early shuttle fliers are frankly hitting an age where they are at the higher risk for developing cancer. Of the 71 astronauts selected in 1978, 1980 and 1984, six have succumbed to cancer by my count (Charles Veach, Dave Walker, Sally Ride, Mike Lounge, David Low and sadly, now Steve Nagel). Even still, this honestly does not seem to be a very high rate compared to the national population. I am using this as my reference as well for statistical averages. I don't know the numbers for cosmonauts, but in general the life expectancy in Russia is lower than in the U.S. | |
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