For Urban Athletes, Invisible Pollution Takes a Toll

While Olympic athletes worry about how the air quality in Beijing, tens of thousands of the rest of us are worrying about the influence of pollution on daily cycling and running. The New York Times reports that, particularly in some of the smoggier cities in southern California, cyclists are racing to get their workout in before 11 am, while the air is still relatively clean. Should they worry? The short answer is Yes. The Times quotes Kenneth Rundell, the director of the Human Performance Laboratory at
Marywood University in Scranton, Pa. and chairman of a scientific
session on air pollution and athletes at the annual meeting of the
American College of Sports Medicine, saying “Athletes typically take in
10 to 20 times as much air,” and thus pollutants, with every breath as
sedentary people do.
What to do?  Experts consulted by the Times suggest that exercisers should keep their distance from
exhaust-spewing cars and check air-quality forecasts before venturing
out. Read more in the New York Times.