Medical management of a potentially toxic accidental trialkylamine ingestion during spaceflight

To reduce excessive iodine consumption by astronauts, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has developed various methods of removing residual iodine after iodine-based water purification aboard spacecraft. The Low Iodine Residual System (LIRS) was developed as an iodine removal system for use aboard the space shuttle. This is a case report of an accidental, potentially toxic ingestion by astronauts aboard a space shuttle mission following exposure to contaminated water from LIRS filtration and the medical response operations that followed.

Astronauts ingested significant levels of trialkylamines from water that had passed through gamma-irradiated, de-iodination resin in the LIRS hardware. Medical response operations included crew evaluations, consultations with toxicologists and systems experts, hardware testing, contaminant evaluation, and close crewmember follow-up.

Despite the significant ingestion there were no adverse clinical symptoms in any of the exposed astronauts; however, the case highlights a simple pitfall in the classification of hardware that ultimately lead to a potentially harmful toxic ingestion among the crewmembers, and the real-time response of medical personnel to ensure crew safety.