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Outer space is a notoriously harsh environment, exposing astronauts to high levels of radiation. In addition, radiation exposure can increase rates of cancer and heart disease in humans confined to the earth.
A new study, however, brings good news: space radiation does not seem to increase the risk of death from cancer or heart disease of astronauts, at least not at the doses they have experienced during historical missions. Longer missions – such a mission on Mars – will likely come with much larger doses of radiation that could pose greater health risks, said the authors.
Space travel exposes the body to higher levels of ionizing radiation than those commonly encountered on Earth. And in high doses, these radiation has been linked not only to cancer and heart disease, but also to a host of other health problems.
Previous studies have not shown any link between space travel and an increased risk of death from cancer or heart disease; but since relatively few people traveled in space, these studies may have been too small to detect such a link, the authors said. [7 Everyday Things That Happen Strangely in Space]
The new study analyzed information from 418 space travelers, including 301 NASA astronauts who had traveled in space at least once since 1959, and 117
Russian or Soviet cosmonauts who have traveled in space at least once since 1961. These participants have been followed for about 25 years on average.
During this period, 89 of the participants died. Of the 53 NASA astronauts who died, 30% died of cancer and 15% of heart disease; while among the 36 Russian or Soviet cosmonauts who died, 50% died as a result of heart disease and 28% of cancer.
The researchers used a special statistical technique to determine whether deaths from cancer and heart disease probably had a common cause – in this case, the common cause would be spatial radiation. But their results do not indicate any common cause of death.
"If ionizing radiation has an impact on the risk of death from cancer and cardiovascular disease, the effect is not dramatic," the authors wrote in their study, published July 4 in the journal Scientific Reports.
Nevertheless, the study can not determine whether longer missions would pose different risks.
"It is important to note that future deep space exploration missions are likely to provide much higher radiation doses than the original ones, which will result in a different risk profile for the future. astronauts and cosmonauts, "said the authors. Future studies should continue to monitor astronauts "for potential adverse effects of exposure to space radiation," they concluded.
Originally published on Science live.
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