NYT: Olympic Teams Vying to Defeat Beijing’s Smog
By JULIET MACUR
Published: January 24, 2008
(Oded Balilty/AP)
Heavy pollution engulfs tourists in Tiananmen Square, Beijing last December.
....Randy Wilber....a 53-year-old scientist based here at the United States Olympic Training Center, has spent most of the past two years vying with his counterparts from other nations to devise smarter, safer ways for athletes to face Beijing’s noxious air.
To protect the athletes, Mr. Wilber is encouraging them to train elsewhere and arrive in Beijing at the last possible moment. He is also testing possible Olympians to see if they qualify for an International Olympic Committee exemption to use an asthma inhaler. And, in what may be a controversial recommendation, Mr. Wilber is urging all the athletes to wear specially designed masks over their noses and mouths from the minute they step foot in Beijing until they begin competing....
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Pollution levels on a typical day in Beijing, some researchers say, are nearly five times above World Health Organization standards for safety. The marathon world-record holder Haile Gebrselassie, who has allergies, and the world’s No. 1 women’s tennis player, Justine Henin, who has asthma, have expressed reservations about competing in the Olympics for fear that pollution will exacerbate their breathing problems.
Some athletes who competed in Olympic test events last year complained that the foul air made it difficult to breathe and caused upper-respiratory infections and nausea. Colby Pearce, 35, an Olympic hopeful in track cycling from Boulder, Colo., said he saw smog floating inside the velodrome in Beijing. His throat became scratchy and he developed bronchitis, he said, because of air pollution. “When you are coughing up black mucus, you have to stop for a second and say: ‘O.K., I get it. This is a really, really bad problem we’re looking at,’ ” he said.
The United States boxing team, while competing in China last month, ran in the hotel hallways instead of on the streets because the air was “disgusting,” said Joe Smith, the team manager.
To combat the problem of air quality, Mr. Wilber and his counterparts from countries with sufficient money have been in silent, clandestine competition, each trying to devise a better plan....
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/sports/othersports/24mask.html?hp=&pagewanted=all