"Henry Spencer" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Rusty Barton news.surewest.net wrote:
In the 19th and early 20th century, hard rock miners developed
silicosis of the lungs due to inhaling dust produced from hard rock
mining. In a future lunar base, would repeated exposure to lunar dust
pose similar hazards? Would there be similar problems on Mars or
asteroids?

Breathing *any* particulates -- any sort of dust or smoke -- into your
lungs on a regular basis is a bad idea. In any such setting, some degree
of dust control would be needed for health.

On the Moon, and quite possibly elsewhere, *serious* dust control would be
needed in any case to keep the abrasive dust from getting into suit joints
and other mechanisms.

The Apollo crews used a brush of some sort, but it wasn't effective at
removing all the dust (as images of the A17 crew will attest). A vacuum
cleaner would be better, combined with coveralls which would help to protect
the suit joints.

--
Alan Erskine
alanerskine(at)optusnet.com.au
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