Abstract
IT was recently suggested1 that, on the Moon, man will be more susceptible to infection by aerosols containing bacteria because the smaller gravitational field will lower the filtration efficiency of the upper respiratory tract. The reduction in upper respiratory tract deposition will be caused by a reduction in the sedimentation velocity of the aerosol particles. The other mechanisms for upper respiratory tract deposition, Brownian diffusion and impaction, will be unaffected, but the former is of negligible importance for particles greater than about lμ.
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Muir, D. C., Nature, 209, 921 (1966).
Beeckmans, J. M., Canad. J. Physiol. Pharmacol., 43, 157 (1965).
Beeckmans, J. M., Ann. Occup. Hyg., 8, 221 (1965).
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BEECKMANS, J. Alveolar Deposition of Aerosols on the Moon and in Outer Space. Nature 211, 208 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1038/211208a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/211208a0
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