AP test: Rio Olympic water badly polluted, even far offshore

[Baclava]

Source: AP/ABC

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Olympic sailor Erik Heil floated a novel idea to protect himself from the sewage-infested waters he and other athletes will compete in during next year's games: He'd wear plastic overalls and peel them off when he was safely past the contaminated waters nearest shore.

Heil, 26, was treated at a Berlin hospital for MRSA, a flesh-eating bacteria, shortly after sailing in an Olympic test event in Rio in August. But his strategy to avoid a repeat infection won't limit his risk.

A new round of testing by The Associated Press shows the city's Olympic waterways are as rife with pathogens far offshore as they are nearer land, where raw sewage flows into them from fetid rivers and storm drains. That means there is no dilution factor in the bay or lagoon where events will take place and no less risk to the health of athletes like sailors competing farther from the shore.

"Those virus levels are widespread. It's not just along the shoreline but it's elsewhere in the water, therefore it's going to increase the exposure of the people who come into contact with those waters," said Kristina Mena, an expert in waterborne viruses and an associate professor of public health at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. "We're talking about an extreme environment, where the pollution is so high that exposure is imminent and the chance of infection very likely."



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/ap-test-rio-olympic-water-badly-polluted-offshore-35522811

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The IOC knew that Rio's waters were an open cesspool for years.


"Rio won the right to host the Olympics based on a lengthy bid document that promised to clean up the city's scenic waterways by improving sewage sanitation, a pledge that was intended to be one of the event's biggest legacies. Brazilian officials now acknowledge that won't happen"

"None of the venues are fit for swimmers or boaters, she said. Athletes who ingest three teaspoons of water have a 99 percent chance of being infected by viruses."

[SunSeeker]

1. Yuck. They should move the water events to cleaner waters. nt

[denverbill]

2. That's just wrong to let the swimming and boating stay there.

This is a once in a lifetime sporting event for most of these people and to force them to perform in waters where it's almost LIKELY they will be contaminated is a really shitty thing for the Olympics to do.

They should make the heads of the Olympic committee swim in the waters before the athletes do, as well as the people who promised a clean environment.

[Baclava]

4. The IOC continues to say it's no big deal

IOC will not run viral tests of polluted Rio waters

RIO DE JANEIRO -- The International Olympic Committee ruled out conducting viral tests of Rio de Janeiro's sewage-laden waterways ahead of the 2016 games, a top official said

When Rio was awarded the games in 2009, authorities promised cleaning its sewage-strewn waters would be a top Olympic legacy. But state and local officials have acknowledged the Olympic pledges are nowhere near being met. While the first efforts to clean up the bay debuted in 1993, Gov. Luiz Fernando Pezao recently pushed timeline for a cleanup of the Guanabara Bay back to 2035.

"The IOC puts on the highest priority the athletes and our friends around this table are doing their upmost so that this issue of water quality is being heavily dealt with so the athletes can compete in secure and safe environments"

Asked whether they themselves would swim in the bay to prove the water's quality -- as Rio's state environmental secretary did on a television program earlier this year -- the officials laughed jocularly and shifted in their seats.

"We will dive together," said El Moutawakel with a giggle, pointing to other IOC officials she said would take the plunge with her.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ioc-will-not-run-viral-tests-of-polluted-rio-waters/

[saturnsring]

3. de-regulation at it's finest

[Tempest]

5. Timeline of Rio Olympic Water Testing Broken Promises

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/timeline-rio-olympic-water-testing-broken-promises-35522812

[Baclava]

6. "The levels of disease-causing viruses were similar to those found in raw sewage"

Lovely

Polluted waters could force Rio de Janeiro to move 2016 Olympic races

RIO DE JANEIRO — The site chosen for the finals of next summer’s Olympic sailing races could not be more spectacular. Located at the mouth of Guanabara Bay, at the foot of Rio de Janeiro’s Sugarloaf Mountain, in full view of the crowds on Flamengo Beach, it is one of the most scenic places on the planet.

But there is one not-so-little problem.

“It is dirty,’’ said Brazilian Olympic windsurfer Ricardo Winicki. “It is one of the dirtiest places. And one of the most beautiful.’’

So notoriously grimy are the waters that Brazilian authorities are fighting to defend their selection of the site, which is polluted with raw sewage and garbage that floods into the 147-square-mile bay from open sewers and rain gullies — according to a 2014 report, 1.6?million homes in cities around the bay still lacked sewage collection.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/polluted-bay-could-force-rio-to-move-2016-olympic-sailing-races/2015/05/15/c828bcb6-f362-11e4-bca5-21b51bbdf93e_story.html