1 Month Out, Bejing Air 3X WHO's Safe Limit - Endurance Athletes Fear Permanent Physical Damage

[hatrack]

n Thursday, exactly one month before the Olympic marathon, the air-pollution index in Beijing was 113. What does that number mean? It's three times what the World Health Organization considers safe. To put it a different way: Not even the worst day of 2007 in smog-filled Los Angeles was as bad as Thursday in Beijing.

And that's after the Chinese government has spent billions and billions cleaning up the air, closing factories and taking half the cars off the road. It also doesn't take into account the Beijing Factor: the Chinese government has systematically manipulated the measurement and reporting of pollution to provide readings that paint a picture much rosier -- or greener -- than reality. So who knows how bad it really was?

EDIT

The warning signs have been building for years. Last year, only eight of 50 competitors finished a world-class mountain-biking race on a bad day in Beijing. A boxing team that participated in a tournament in the Olympic city had to do training runs in hotel hallways because athletes were almost passing out in the polluted air outside. And American triathlete Matthew Reed says when he was preparing for a race in Beijing last year, he blew his nose and the tissue went black. On race day, he could barely finish. About four minutes into the run, he says, it hit him. "My legs still felt great, my body felt great, but I just couldn't breathe."

EDIT

For some competitors, it won't make a big difference. How many breaths will the 100-metre runners take in the 10 seconds it takes them to complete their event? But for endurance athletes, like triathletes and marathoners, it may not just affect their performance, but their health. Haile Gebrselassie, the world record holder, is skipping the Olympic marathon because he suffers from asthma and is worried about permanent damage to his lungs. Paula Radcliffe, the women's world record holder, is also asthmatic. She's determined to compete, and has consulted with a number of experts, but what if she risks her long-term health for the Olympic gold medal she has long coveted?

EDIT

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/columnists/story.html?id=8a76467d-2466-4a00-941e-0e87da318ec5

[yourout]

1. China is a Republicans wet dream. Almost no regulations, unadulterated greed, and no unions.

Repulican nirvana.

[kestrel91316]

4. .......and a virtual fascist dictatorship, too.

[madrchsod]

2. last year the us womens and other soccer teams

practiced in other countries because of the pollution in the chinese venues.soccer/football players are as fit as any runner....well maybe not after the olympic games in china

[derby378]

3. Are athletes allowed to wear gas masks while competing?

I think both the US and Israel have a few surplus masks available for peanuts...