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Tuesday August 3 2:13 PM ET
Air pollution reduces athletic performance
NEW YORK, Aug 03 (Reuters Health) -- Levels of carbon monoxide
pollution in city air can impair the athletic stamina of
otherwise healthy young men, researchers report.
Carbon monoxide pollution has ``adverse effects on skeletal
muscles, causing decreased exercise performance,'' explain
Israeli researchers led by Dr. Haim Bitterman of Carmel Medical
Center in Haifa, Israel. Their findings are published in the
August issue of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Carbon monoxide exposure inhibits the flow of oxygen to cells,
and inhalation of the colorless, odorless gas is a leading cause
of poisoning death. The symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning --
confusion, headache, fatigue -- usually begin to appear when
carbon monoxide levels in blood hemoglobin exceed 10%. And
according to previous studies, daily exposure
to polluted urban air can cause blood levels of carbon monoxide
to rise to between 2% and 6%.
To determine the physiologic effects of urban air pollution, the
researchers had 15 healthy young males (aged 18 to 35 years)
perform treadmill exercise tests after being exposed to about 4
minutes of either unpolluted air or carbon monoxide-tainted
'city' air.
According to the authors, the polluted air had ``a detrimental
effect on the exercise performance of young healthy men.'' When
exposed to clean air, the men were able to run on the treadmill
for an average of 15.3 minutes before exhaustion. After being
exposed to the carbon monoxide-tainted air, however, exhaustion
set in at about 13.7 minutes -- a full minute-and-a-half less.
Bitterman and colleagues believe that exposure to urban pollution
may trigger an ``early fatigue of skeletal muscles.'' They point
out that carbon monoxide is found in high quantities in cigarette
smoke, as well, so that ``smokers chronically exposed to air
pollution may... (face) a more severe threat to their health.''
SOURCE: Occupational and Environmental Medicine 1999;56:535-538.
last update 24 Oct 1999
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