Olympic athletes face health risks

With the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, rapidly approaching, athletes face health dangers. And no, Zika isn’t the biggest threat. That would be the polluted waterways, including sewage-filled Guanabara Bay, which Brazil promised would be cleaned up for the Olympics, but have not.

Last week, the U.N.’s World Health Organization said the Games do not need to be moved or postponed — as other have advised — because there is a “very low risk” of further spread of Zika during that time. While Brazil is at the epicenter of the outbreak, with more than 100,000 cases of the mosquito-borne illness reported, WHO scientists say that there is little chance those numbers will grow because the Olympics take place during Brazil’s winter, when the transmission of viruses, are minimal. Only pregnant women are advised to avoid traveling to the Olympics.

The WHO took its stance, however, after 223 scientists, doctors, bioethicists and public health experts, signed a letter urging the move or postponement of the Olympics, since the WHO itself had earlier declared Zika a “Public health emergency of international concern,” Forbes reported.

The concerns of these health officials can’t be dismissed as easily as WHO and Brazil would like. Each athlete and traveler must make up his or her own mind on whether to participate and/or attend the Olympics, depending on whose word they decide to trust.

Disturbingly, Reuters reported last week that scientists in two studies have found dangerous drug-resistant “super bacteria” off Rio beaches that will host swimming events and in a lagoon where rowing and canoe athletes will compete. Waste from countless hospitals, in addition to hundreds of thousands of households, pours into storm drains, rivers and streams crisscrossing Rio, allowing the super bacteria to spread outside the city’s hospitals in recent years, Reuters reported.

“These bacteria should not be present in these waters. They should not be present in the sea,” said Renata Picao, a professor at Rio’s federal university, adding that contamination of Rio’s beaches was the result of a lack of basic sanitation in the metro area of 12 million people.

Last August, 13 rowers on the 40-member U.S. team came down with stomach illness at the World Rowing Junior Championships in Rio and the team doctor said she suspected it was due to pollution in the lake where the competition took place. (Where 37 tons of dead fish were removed last year…)

The Mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, told the Independent that Zika and super bacteria are not real concerns when it comes to hosting the Olympics. The biggest problem, he said, is a current crime wave. But the police and military will keep Rio safe, he added. (To support his argument, on Sunday a group of heavily armed men stormed a Rio hospital to free a suspected drug trafficker, sparking a shootout with officers that left a patient dead and a nurse and an off-duty policeman wounded.)

Brazilians, Olympic athletes, spectators, visitors, and the environment all deserve better.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Opinion

toon
Editorial cartoons for Tuesday, March 19

A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

Students use a 3D model to demonstrate their groups traffic solutions at Hazelwood Elementary School on Wednesday, March 29, 2023 in Lynnwood, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Editorial: Your choice, drivers; slow down or pay up

More traffic cameras will soon be in use in cities and highways, with steep penalties for violations.

Protect Affordable Care Act by rejecting Trump

The stakes are high in this year’s presidential election. If candidate Donald… Continue reading

Support candidates who support schools

I promised I would stop writing these letters because the gates of… Continue reading

Biden must stop supplying weapons to Israel, Ukraine

Bad foreign policy will come back to haunt us in the long… Continue reading

Comment: Flow of U.S. guns into Mexico is other border crisis

Guns, legal and illegal, are contributing to crime and instability in Mexico, driving many to seek asylum.

RGB version
Editorial cartoons for Monday, March 18

A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

Carson gets a chance to sound the horn in an Everett Fire Department engine with the help of captain Jason Brock during a surprise Make-A-Wish sendoff Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023, at Thornton A. Sullivan Park in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Editorial: Everett voters will set course for city finances

This fall and in coming years, they will be asked how to fund and support the services they use.

Devotees of TikTok, Mona Swain, center, and her sister, Rachel Swain, right, both of Atlanta, monitor voting at the Capitol in Washington, as the House passed a bill that would lead to a nationwide ban of the popular video app if its China-based owner doesn't sell, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. Lawmakers contend the app's owner, ByteDance, is beholden to the Chinese government, which could demand access to the data of TikTok's consumers in the U.S. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Editorial: Forced sale of TikTok ignores network of problems

The removal of a Chinese company would still leave concerns for data privacy and the content on apps.

Rep. Strom Peterson, D-Edmonds, watches the State of the State speech by Gov. Jay Inslee on the second day of the legislative session at the Washington state Capitol, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, in Olympia, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Editorial: Legislature has its own production of ‘The Holdovers’

What state lawmakers left behind in good ideas that should get more attention and passage next year.

Comment: Measles outbreaks show importance of MMR vaccinations

The highly contagious disease requires a 95 percent vaccination rate to limit the spread of outbreaks.

Harrop: Should ‘affordable’ come at cost of quality of living?

As states push their cities to ignore zoning rules, the YIMBYs are covering for developers.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.