Introduction: 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.
Case report: 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.
Discussion: 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.