Lippi G, Guidi G C, Maffulli N
Dipartimento di Scienze Morfologico-Biomediche, Istituto di Chimica e Microscopia Clinica, Università di Verona, Verona, Italy.
Int J Sports Med. 2008 Aug;29(8):696-8. doi: 10.1055/s-2008-1038684. Epub 2008 May 29.
The Beijing Olympics will begin in August 2008 and athletes will face an unpredictable challenge. Based on present data, Beijing is one of the most polluted megacities in the world; the air concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO), ozone, nitrogen oxides (NO and NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and particulate matter approach or exceed the current limits established by U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Although the athletes who will be competing in Beijing are physiologically very different to the participants in most published studies, and it is therefore difficult to predict individual responses, there is little doubt that the presence of these air pollutants might be detrimental to athletic performance due to the marked increase (up to 20-fold) in ventilatory rate and concomitant nasal and oral breathing. Moreover, mouth breathing often bypasses the noise during strenuous exercise, increasing the deleterious effects of pollutants on health and athletic performance. Although limited, each decrement in athletic performance would have a potentially deleterious impact on top-class athletes competing in the next Olympics in China. Several Olympic records are regularly broken during the Olympics. Will this be the case for Beijing?
北京奥运会将于2008年8月开幕，运动员们将面临难以预测的挑战。根据目前的数据，北京是世界上污染最严重的特大城市之一；空气中一氧化碳（CO）、臭氧、氮氧化物（NO和NO2）、二氧化硫（SO2）和颗粒物的浓度接近或超过了美国环境保护局（EPA）设定的现行限值。尽管将在北京参赛的运动员在生理上与大多数已发表研究中的参与者有很大不同，因此很难预测个体反应，但毫无疑问，这些空气污染物的存在可能会对运动表现产生不利影响，因为呼吸频率会显著增加（高达20倍），同时伴有鼻腔和口腔呼吸。此外，在剧烈运动时，张口呼吸往往会绕过鼻腔，增加污染物对健康和运动表现的有害影响。尽管影响有限，但运动表现的每一次下降都可能对参加下一届中国奥运会的顶级运动员产生潜在的有害影响。奥运会期间经常会打破多项奥运纪录。北京会是这种情况吗？
