Air Pollution and Exercise: Thank You for Not JoggingOn a recent visit to Houston, I tried exercising on the Memorial Park loop, as I often do early on Sunday when traffic is light. Hey, what could go wrong with a little open air fitness, exercise and fresh air? Plenty. It wasn't Sunday. Other runners were breaking stride and walking more frequently in the polluted air that borders the freeway. Was I the only one who noticed the adverse effects of aerobic exercise in polluted air? Could exercising in air pollution near freeway corridors actually do more harm than good? After spending most of my life on or near a major highway, I intuitively knew my answer. I packed up and went back to my shack. At the cul-de-sac end of a two-cars-a-day gravel lane in the sticks. Green acres is the place for me.... This incident got me thinking about the additional dangers urban athletes assume when exercising in polluted air. China's 2008 Olympics: Field of DreamsChina's capital has been built up as a showplace for the 2008 Olympics, but Beijing's notorious air pollution problem isn't going away. Beijing is trying everything, from shutting down coal-burning power plants to closing roads, to spruce up its air quality image. Competitive endurance event runners are at highest risk. If you build it they might not come.
- Olympic Marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, and other runners, have been in the press for refusing to train in Beijing's polluted air ahead of China's 2008 games. Gebrselassie has suggested he may not enter the marathon due to the health risks. Numerous Olympians are training in cleaner South Korea, much to the chagrin of the Chinese government managers. China bashing just keeps getting easier, with the Dali Lama protest in Tibet and new stories of tainted export products daily. Most of the air purifiers recommended here are made in Europe, the USA, and Japan. The copycat Chinese have reverse engineered every stupid western mistake, from unsustainable private cars and freeways to coal-fired power plants. China is the fastest growing, and soon will be the largest air polluter on the planet, set to surpass the US in greenhouse gas emissions sometime in 2008. Many interior industrial cities make the air pollution in the Olympic city look tame. Lung cancer is the number one cause of death. Health Hazards of Exercise in Polluted AirAthletes are particularly vulnerable to pollutant effects because they inhale 10 to 15 times the air volume as compared to the sedentary. The typical inactive individual inhales about 600 liters of air each hour. During strenuous activity the volume could be as high as 7,000 liters.
Breathing through the mouth bypasses the body's main particle filtering apparatus, hairs and cilia in the nasal cavity. Inhaling deeply carries the toxins to the alveolar sacs, where real damage can occur. Urban air, especially near high-vehicle-count thruways, carries sulfur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) gasses. Lungs, designed for gas transfer, cannot block these poisons from entering the bloodstream. Fine Particles: Expressway to Your HeartMicroscopic fine particle pollutants, like those in engine exhaust, are invisible. Studies suggesting a correlation between athletics and asthma, emphysema, and other respiratory afflictions have been around for several years. But now new studies are emerging, linking airborne ultra-fine particulate, with diameters below .1 micron, with serious cardiovascular damage. Ultra-fine particles can pass through the alveolar membrane and enter the bloodstream, where they add to the free radical attack on the arterial walls. The wisdom of avoiding outdoor exercise on hazy days days with high particulate counts continues to be lost on many big city "fitness" affectionados. Indoor air at health clubs is often polluted with deodorizing sprays and cleaning chemicals, but I think there could be a marketing angle developing for guaranteed clean indoor exercise. No ExpectationsAir quality at the 2008 games looks to be the worst of any Olympics, so I'm not expecting many new world records in endurance events. High carbon monoxide levels have a synergistic effect, further decreasing performance. Some sports pundits are predicting numerous athlete burnouts after the Bejing games. For marathoners and tri-athletes, competing at Bejing could be the beginning of the end. Healthy people, who by definition are the active, may not feel symptoms, so they continue their "healthy" exercise schedule regardless. After 30 years on the highway, passing through urban areas and back into the countryside thousands of times, I say downtown air is dangerous. What you can't see does hurt you. Urban exercisers should move far away from vehicle exhaust and check air-quality forecasts before an outdoor workout. Several teams were reported to have considered offering activated carbon filtration masks to Olympic team members. The government of China objected. Microsoft Internet Explorer users, please use form below to bookmark site: Looking for something? Try searching the site: End China Olympics: Health Hazards of Exercise in Air Pollution, return to News-Blog Sitemap
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So exercise in polluted air vastly increases lung surface contact with airborne pollutants.