An Associated Press investigation has revealed that the waters in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil are allegedly so dirty that athletes competing in the 2014 Summer Olympics risk becoming violently ill.
Advertisement
The global Sailing Federation (ISAF) says it continues to address concerns and is taking steps to ensure the health and safety of all athletes who will be competing in the upcoming Aquece Rio, Olympic Test Event and the Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition, but is it enough?
Dr. Richard Budgett, the medical director for the worldwide Olympic Committee, said after seeing the AP findings that the IOC and Brazilian authorities would stick to their program of testing only for bacteria to determine whether the water is safe, as that is the accepted norm globally. Currently, tests evaluate bacteria, but not viruses.
David Zee, an oceanography professor at Rio de Janeiro’s state university who has long researched pollution in Guanabara Bay, rejected the government’s response, saying that in Brazil “it’s natural that the authorities react saying that ‘everything is fine, ‘ but everything is not fine”. Prime beaches are deserted because the surf is thick with putrid sludge, and periodic die-offs leave the Olympic lake, Rodrigo de Freitas, littered with rotting fish. Approximately 1,400 of whom will come into contact with the contaminated waters.
This water contains risky levels of adenoviruses, which multiply in human intestines and respiratory systems and can cause explosive diarrhea, vomiting, and other frightful symptoms.
The Rio de Janeiro state government and the state environmental agency in press releases blasted the AP report as being alarmist and said it was unfair to judge Rio’s waters based on viral counts, limits of which are not designated in Brazilian legislation.
Most sewage is not treated in Brazil and waste runs through open-air ditches to streams and rivers which feed the Olympic water sites.
Brazilian officials have assured that the water will be safe for the Olympic athletes. The executives are accused of failing to take measures to prepare for natural disasters such as the quake and tsunami that destroyed the plant in March 2011, causing three nuclear meltdowns, an evacuation of 160,000 residents, and contamination of air, soil and water.
In this April 28, 2015 photo, Fernando Spilki, virologist and…
Advertisement
After examining the AP data, U.S. waterborne virus risk assessment expert, Kristina Mena, estimates that athletes would have a 99 percent chance of infection if they ingested even just three teaspoons of water. That depends on immunity and many other factors. “There’s no point in going on about the quality of the water, the Olympics are going to be in Rio no matter what and so this subject is dead for me”, said Olympic gold medalist Marcelo Ferreira, according to Reuters.
