Think International Space Station dust is obviously free of bad chemicals? Wrong

By Brandon Vigliarolo | The Register | August 11, 2023

Read the full article by Brandon Vigliarolo (The Register)

"The International Space Station has perhaps a bit of a housekeeping issue on its hands. Analysis of dust samples from its air filters suggest astronauts are likely exposed to higher levels of dangerous chemicals than those of us stuck on Earth, on average.

In a report published this week in the Environmental Science & Technology Letters journal, folks at the UK's University of Birmingham and NASA's Glenn Research Center said organic contaminant levels in ISS dust exceeded the median values reported in many US and western European homes. 

Below is a table, taken from the above peer-reviewed paper, listing the concentrations of chemicals found in dust collected on the ISS, compared with what some of us experience on Earth. ("ns" means not significant.) The space dust is mostly above the median though typically within the household range."

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