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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 on elite athletes in Beijing Airport, August 6, 2008
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
http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=52585&ret=AccountDtl.aspx "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."
http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2008/08/george-bush---.html George Bush -- Waiting to Inhale in Beijing: "China grades its air pollution on the curve, and what's considered passing there is passing-out quality here."
January 24, 2008 NY Times, Juliet Macur, pages 1A and 14A printed edition or
online edition "Olympic Teams Vying to Defeat Beijing's Smog"
www.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/sports/othersports/24mask.html?ex=1201842000&en=341b2c0fa
217c67c&ei=5070&emc=eta1;
Yardley "Smoggy Beijing Plans to Cut Traffic by Half for Olympics,"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/world/asia/24beijing.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
See also an earlier article: "Marathoners Might Be Wearing Face Masks In
Beijing," August 2007 by Amby Burfoot
http://dailynews.runnersworld.com/2007/08/feature-news-wh.html.
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.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121659379072468809.html?mod=hpp_us_pageone
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17882
Also see articles: Juliet Macur, "Beijing Air Raises Questions for Olympics," NY
Times, August 25, 2007. For health effects of air pollution in Los Angeles see
Study: "Air Pollution Deadlier Than Thought," by Jennifer Warner, October 03, 2005.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,171144,00.html
http://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=static.health
http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content4/ozone.asthma.news.html
and http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=50328
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 02/16/10
