Even spacemen have to barf

When I get sick, my heaves get pretty violent. I’ve thrown up through my nose multiple times. Not fun. I usually have the benefit of gravity though – so I have a pretty decent idea where the vomit is going to end up. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield who has become an international space singing star, discusses what space folks do with their barf bags. According to NBC news, astronauts get sick even in the weightlessness of space and thanks to astronaut Chris Hadfield, folks now know how.

“When we first get to space, we feel sick,” Hadfield said to a group of students back on the planet. “Your body is really confused. You’re dizzy. Your lunch is floating around in your belly because you’re floating. What you see doesn’t match what you feel, and you want to throw up.”

The space station commander then opened up a “barf bag” and showed the students the proper method for up-chucking in space.”Think about what happens on Earth when you throw up,” Hadfield said. “You throw up and you have a bag of something horrible and then you throw it away, but if I have this bag, what am I going to do with it? This bag is going to stay with me in space for months, so we want a really good barf bag.”

Astronaut barf bags have liners that can be used to clean a spaceflyer’s face post-puke, added Hadfield. There is also a very durable zip-lock bag that prevents the waste from floating around the $100 billion orbiting laboratory.

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About Ben Chapman

Dr. Ben Chapman is a professor and food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University. As a teenager, a Saturday afternoon viewing of the classic cable movie, Outbreak, sparked his interest in pathogens and public health. With the goal of less foodborne illness, his group designs, implements, and evaluates food safety strategies, messages, and media from farm-to-fork. Through reality-based research, Chapman investigates behaviors and creates interventions aimed at amateur and professional food handlers, managers, and organizational decision-makers; the gate keepers of safe food. Ben co-hosts a biweekly podcast called Food Safety Talk and tries to further engage folks online through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and, maybe not surprisingly, Pinterest. Follow on Twitter @benjaminchapman.