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Masks in the News
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Masks in the News |
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Following two years of evaluation during multiple test events in Beijing during severe pollution, two national teams purchased an I Can Breathe!® Honeycomb ACF Pollution Mask for every athlete and staff member traveling to and touring in Beijing before and during August-September 2008 games.
I Can Breathe!® Masks as seen for health not politics in Beijing, August 2008
Politics or Health? see New York Times, Juliet Macur, 8/5/2008
Healthy Lungs Labor At Acceptable Ozone Levels, ScienceDaily, July 24, 2009 ACF Mask filters Ozone
"Pollution: The Risks for Travelers" New York Times, Judith Shulevitz, August 6, 1989
Particulate Matter Filtered & Chemicals Captured by an I Can Breathe!® Honeycomb ACF Pollution Mask.
"Before the Games began, a few American athletes apologized for walking through the airport with masks. And Tuesday, NBC showed entire teams wearing masks to protect against sucking down contaminants." "My sleep hasn't been enhanced" By TERRY DICKSON, The Florida Times-Union 8/13/2008
"When the official Chinese media lambasted American athletes for wearing masks to guard against pollution, one blogger responded: 'No, we don't need to seek an apology. If wearing a mask does someone good, let them do it. If the air is fine, they'll take it off.'"
Excerpted from: Beijing's Infernal Air Pollution Will Kill A Few Olympic Athletes; Most US Athletes Will Wear Masks While Preparing for Their Events, July 5, 2008
"George Thurston, Professor of Environmental Medicine at New York University School of Medicine, said the body's reaction to pollution exposure is immediate. Your body says, 'This air is bad; breathe less of it,' and that's a defensive mechanism. For athletes, that means they will go into oxygen debt sooner and will start cramping up. At the Olympics, that could be disastrous.
"Pollution can provoke allergic reactions or set off asthma attacks. The risk of a heart attack rises on high-pollution days. He worries most about ozone and particulate matter, two of five pollutants that affect an athlete's performance. (Carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide are the others.) Vehicle emissions, coal-fueled factories and construction sites in and around Beijing generate the high level of air pollution. Ozone directly affects the lungs, and at high enough levels, it would cause fluid to come into the lungs, Thurston said. Particulate matter is actually breathed in, and the particles deposit on the lungs and can actually pass through the lungs and into the bloodstream. Both can cause acute reactions in people exposed to them."
January 24, 2008
NY Times, Juliet Macur, pages 1A and 14A printed edition or
online edition
"Olympic Teams Vying to Defeat Beijing's Smog"
July 21, 2008 front page
Wall Street Journal :
"Olympic Athletes Wearing Masks Could Cause China to
Lose Face: U.S. Committee Developed a Model in Secret; Jarrod Shoemaker Ponders
the Dork Factor" by Christopher Rhoads and Sephanie Kang, with contributor in Beijing, Shai Oster.
For health effects of air pollution in Los Angeles see
Study: "Air
Pollution Deadlier Than Thought," by Jennifer Warner, October 03, 2005.
See what's in your air
now and the American Lung Association
"State of the Air Report 2010" and
Most Polluted Cities in US
Magellan's, America's Leading Source of Travel
Supplies, 800-962-4943,
I Can Breathe!
Honeycomb ACF Pollution
Mask
Questions or comments: in USA call toll free 1-888-313-0123, M-F 9a-5p CST.
International E-mail or call: 001-773-643-1062 M-F 9a-5p Chicago, Illinois.
Last update 09/01/10
