Breathing in moon dust could release toxins in astronauts' lungs

The surface of the moon is dusty – and nasty. The Apollo astronauts quickly learned that the sharp grains of moon dust could tear spacesuits and irritate their lungs, but now it seems the lunar surface is even worse for human health than we thought.

By studying lunar dust samples brought back by astronauts, we discovered that they contain certain minerals that are known to quickly react with human cells and generate toxic hydroxyl radicals. These hydroxyl radicals have previously been linked to lung cancers.

To estimate how many radicals would be produced…