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Career Excess Mortality Risk from Diagnostic Radiological Exams Required for Crewmembers Participating in Long Duration Space FlightNASA requires astronauts to undergo diagnostic x-ray examinations as a condition for their employment. The purpose of these procedures is to assess the astronaut s overall health and to diagnose conditions that could jeopardize the success of long duration space missions. These include exams for acceptance into the astronaut corps, routine periodic exams, as well as evaluations taken pre and post missions. Issues: According to NASA policy these medical examinations are considered occupational radiological exposures, and thus, are included when computing the astronaut s overall radiation dose and associated excess cancer mortality risk. As such, astronauts and administrators are concerned about the amount of radiation received from these procedures due to the possibility that these additional doses may cause astronauts to exceed NASA s administrative limits, thus disqualifying them from future flights. Methods: Radiation doses and cancer mortality risks following required medical radiation exposures are presented herein for representative male and female astronaut careers. Calculation of the excess cancer mortality risk was performed by adapting NASA s operational risk assessment model. Averages for astronaut height, weight, number of space missions and age at selection into the astronaut corps were used as inputs to the NASA risk model. Conclusion: The results show that the level of excess cancer mortality imposed by all required medical procedures over an entire astronaut s career is approximately the same as that resulting from a single short duration space flight (i.e. space shuttle mission). In short the summation of all medical procedures involving ionizing radiation should have no impact on the number of missions an astronaut can fly over their career. Learning Objectives: 1. The types of diagnostic medical exams which astronauts are subjected to will be presented. 2. The level of radiation dose and excess mortality risk to the average male and female astronaut will be presented.
Document ID
20080046170
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Dodge, C. W.
(Houston Univ. Houston, TX, United States)
Gonzalez, S. M.
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Picco, C. E.
(Houston Univ. Houston, TX, United States)
Johnston, S. L.
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Shavers, M. R.
(Wyle Integrated Science and Engineering Group Houston, TX, United States)
VanBaalen, M.
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
January 8, 2008
Subject Category
Life Sciences (General)
Meeting Information
Meeting: 80th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Aerospace Medical Association (ASMA)
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: May 3, 2009
End Date: May 7, 2009
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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