Habitat Contamination - Warning: Rambling Ahead!

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, rmenich@m... wrote:
> The recent wave of infections experienced on cruise ships picques
my
> interest in this topic... Is that recent news item what
started this
> thread originally?
>
> Ron
> ******

Yes, those cruise ship reports definitely got me thinking about
quarantine issue. Reports about AIDS devastation in Africa coming
out at the same time further spurred my questioning.

We all know that trvel to and from the Habitat is going to be a
journey taking at a minimum 3 days if the Habitat is at L5 or in a
2:1 resonant orbit. Factor in the earth travel time to the launch
site, rendevouz in LEO, perhaps waiting for sufficient passengers to
fill the Habitat shuttle/cruise liner, and I think that we're
realistically looking at travel times of a week or more.

That said, it won't be as easy to travel to and fro between Earth
and the Habitat, so I conclude that the human and cultural
interaction we witness on Earth will be considerably diminished in
the Habitat. Face to face sales call will be rare, tourists willing
to spend two weeks in transit for a return voyage will be rare.

If this will come to pass, then will a Earth based quarantine before
permission to travel be an onerous condition?

Consider the economics of lost productivity due to colds/flu, as
well as the human misery (small in the grand scale of things, but
still very real to those suffering through a cold.)

Who wants to have diarrhea or be coughing up phlem in your space
suit out at the SPS construction site? Also, consider that in a
closed environment, colds will sweep through the population like the
Norwalk virus does through a cruise ship, or for those parents who
can relate, how a cold sweeps through a school classroom.

I contend that it would be worth the inconvenience to the very rare
traveller willing to spend a week on one way transit to insure that
they are free of cold/flu viruses, TB, mumps, measles, etc.

For immigrants, I would go further. List a number of communicable
diseases that are to be screened. To inject a bit of personal
reminisence, when I was in my doctoral program back in the 80's,
being the youngest one in the cohort, my office companions were
sympathisizing with my predicament in the age of AIDS. They recalled
their own age of abandon and nobody dying from having sex.

Why willingly put up with AIDS, cylamdia, herpres, human papolama
virus, etc when they can be screened out in Earth quarantine and
screening?

Taking this concept further; I recall reading a few months back a
report that listed only 5 diseases that account for almost 60% of
society's medical costs. Further, only 12% of the population account
for a different 60% of medical costs.

For a new society in orbit, one in which everyone must apply to
immigrate, I don't see why screening can't be done. It wouldn't run
into the discrimination issues that would plague a domestic hiring
process.

So, to wrap it up - I think that we can tailor the communicable
disease component of our lives in the Habitat. Is this a good idea?
What are its implications? Using the same quarantine policies,
should we also try to eliminate harmful pathogens from the bio-
torus. Afterall, they just have to be screened once - at the
construction phase of the Habitat.

TangoMan