RE: Leukemia in Astronauts

[Franz Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 09:53 24.07.1998 -0500, you wrote:
>I am troubled by the Pavlovian responses to this thread.  Many
>responders seem to have forgotten that all the volunteers for the
>Mercury space program were fighter pilots and/or test pilots.  As such,
>they were exposed for many years to a variety of fuels, chemicals,
>rubbers and materials that we now know to be carcinogenic long before
>they entered the Mercury program.  And let's not forget that some of
>these guys were smokers, too.  How many times a week did they fill up
>those commemorative Zippo lighters with everybody's favorite carcinogen,
>benzene? 
>
>My point... in ignoring the pre-space and ground-bound history of Alan
>Shepard, or any astronaut, while focusing on the dose received during
>space travel tends to designate space radiation as a major leukemia
>inducer in astronauts.  This is neither "reasonable" nor "very
>scientific".  It points to an almost unhealthy obsession to assign a
>specific causation before considering history, all relevant facts and
>alternative inducers.  The same obsession that we, as scientists,
>disdain in the general public.
-----------------------------------------------------

Vince,

I envy you that you are able to express everything I would like to say in
such an excellent way. You addressed something which we sometimes call
"quality of life". You may enjoy smoking a cigarette - even if it shortens
your life for some seconds. BTW I am an absolute non-smoker. You may have
an interesting life, enjoying it and you may like the contribution you do
for the safety for your country - by smelling benzene and rubber and being
a fighter pilot. How much is the percentage of the population which can
ever see the world from a fighter aircraft? How many have been able to see
the world from space - is this not a kind of "quality of life"? How many
people would give many years of their life for such an occasion? The more I
think of this the less I think it appropriate to make comments about the
cause of death of a 74 year old person, who happened to be one of the most
outstanding persons in the history of space flights.

Franz
Franz Schoenhofer
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