Monday, August 01, 2016

Holy crap! Rio's Water is Super Contaminated even Now: Olympic Paddlers Beware

Maybe they should think about cancelling anything that takes place in the open water because this is just scary.
Sampling at the Lagoon in March 2015 revealed an astounding 1.73 billion adenoviruses per liter. By this June, adenovirus readings were lower but still hair-raising at 248 million adenoviruses per liter. By comparison, in California, viral readings in the thousands per liter set off alarm bells.
The Olympic officials better have lots of porta-potties on standby.
The first results of the AP study published over a year ago showed viral levels at up to 1.7 million times what would be considered worrisome in the United States or Europe. At those concentrations, swimmers and athletes who ingest just three teaspoons of water are almost certain to be infected with viruses that can cause stomach and respiratory illnesses and more rarely heart and brain inflammation - although whether they actually fall ill depends on a series of factors including the strength of the individual's immune system.
So swallow some seawater accidentally and its time for the trotts. Sailing is not for the faint of heart.

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