Review of NASA's Longitudinal Study of Astronaut Health (2004) / Chapter Skim
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5 Recommendations for Changes in Health Care Policy
5 Recommendations for Changes in Health Care Policy
Pages 45-52
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From page 45... ...
should have a policy addressing the practical consequences of discovering that a career as an astronaut, or the experience of space travel, leaves astronauts at increased risk for an adverse health effect. Of particular concern is the case in which the effect, cataracts for example, does not become obvious during or immediately after a space flight but instead develops sometime after the astronaut leaves active duty and is no longer provided medical care by NASA.
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From page 46... ...
Several studies of lung cancer in current and former beryllium workers returned the spotlight to beryllium hazards, and in 1993 Congress passed Public Law 102-484, which required the DOE to evaluate the long-range health conditions of current and former employees and contractors whose health might be at risk as a result of exposure to radioactive or other hazardous substances. In a series of pilot studies throughout the 1990s, the DOE Former Workers Program established that it would be possible to locate and contact workers who might have been exposed to hazardous substances.
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From page 47... ...
Concerns among veterans about possible longterm effects on health persisted nonetheless, and when a veteran asserted in 1976 that his acute myelocytic leukemia was related to his participation in a 1957 nuclear test in Nevada, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted an epidemiological study of military personnel who attended that test. The study found more than the expected number of leukemia cases among them (Caldwell et al., 1980, 1983)
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From page 48... ...
authorize the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide medical care and to pay compensation benefits to confirmed test participants and dependency and indemnity compensation to certain survivors.
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From page 49... ...
DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS AND AGENT ORANGE From 1962 to 1971 U.S. military forces sprayed more than 19 million gallons of herbicides over Vietnam to strip the thick jungle canopy that helped conceal opposition forces, destroy crops on which enemy forces might depend, and clear tall grass and bushes from around the perimeters of U.S.
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From page 50... ...
whenever there is sound scientific and medical evidence of a positive association between human exposure to an herbicidal agent and the occurrence of a disease in humans. Public Law 102-4, the Agent Orange Act of 1991, extended disability compensation payments to Vietnam veterans for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and several soft tissue sarcomas.
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From page 51... ...
In the second category (limited or suggestive evidence of an association) are respiratory cancers of the lungs/bronchus, larynx, and trachea; prostate cancer; multiple myeloma acute and subacute transient peripheral neuropathy; porphyria cutanea tarda; type 2 diabetes; and spina bifida in children of veterans.
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From page 52... ...
In each of the three examples, Congress has authored legislation to ensure that the federal government errs on the side of finding too many of its former employees eligible for care and compensation. Given the high profile of the NASA astronaut corps, it is hard to imagine a radical change in that approach should the LSAH reveal that former astronauts have an elevated risk for certain medical problems.
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