Greetings Everyone!
In this blog, I wanted to talk more about the severe effects of air pollution has on outdoor sports, with reference to the video in the previous blog about a marathon being hosted in smog filled Beijing in 2014, as well as a journal article done by authors Yi Hu and Zhen Liu from the Department of Physical Education at Jiang Han University, Wuhan, China.
In 2008, the then World Record Holder for the fastest marathon time and one of the most highly regarded long-distance track and road running athlete Haile Gebrselassie decided not to participate in the Beijing Olympic marathon, due to the poor air quality in the city. Despite his numerous awards and records, Gebrselassie has asthma and a chronic lung disease which affects his breathing (making his achievements seem unreal in my opinion!), and decided to stay on the safe side and not participate.
Interestingly, Gebrselassie, along with fellow long-distance icon Paula Radcliffe (who is also asthmatic!!!), is an ambassador for IAAF and the UN Environment Advocate for Clean Air. The organisations teamed up in May 2018 to start work on an ambitious major cities network of air quality monitors that would measure air pollution at 1,000 IAAF tracks around the world within five years.
Thus, air pollution is a big threat to long-distance runners and the general public who participate in strenuous exercise in heavily polluted areas, like Beijing for example.
According to the journal article done by the 2 authors mentioned, titled “Study on the Negative Impact of Air Pollution on Outdoor
Sports”, the main component that makes up smog, is Particulate Matter, or PM. This can be further categorized into PM10 and PM2.5, which gets a nickname “The Invisible Killer”, because of its ability to carry chemicals and bacterial viruses, which cause serious damage to the respiratory system after being inhaled into the human body.
Doing strenuous exercise results in 4 times the usual intake of air than that of during rest. Thus, doing such activity in PM2.5 filled air is only going to result in more PM2.5 entering the lungs, and leading to greater health hazards. PM2.5 can also enter through the body through pores, which open up 10 to 15 times more during strenuous activity as body temperature goes up thus, again leading to increased PM2.5 entering the body.
Thus, the study highlights the negative effects of exercising in smog, which is why the video in the previous blog was really alarming to me as so many people had participated in that marathon. As for major events like marathons, hopefully the organisations are able to host such events in regions with cleaner air quality, for the not just the benefit, but the health and safety of the athletes involved.
Till the next blog!
References:
Hu, Y., & Liu, Z. (2019). Study on the negative impact of air pollution on outdoor sports. Study on the Negative Impact of Air Pollution on Outdoor Sports.