The Globe

This chapter looks at the relationship between sport and the (Eco)environment;
The first to do so in 1997 and now highly relevant in 2008. The financial crisis of late 2008
may distract from Carbon pollution issues; so we might now be destroying our man made
systems(money) and biological system( from pollution).
As we enter the next millennium, it seems we have all but destroyed our environment
(Fig.1). Doctors may soon be standing helplessly by as our children exercise and play sport
in the disease-ridden scrap yards of the planet.
John Hunter, the intrepid eighteenth century surgeon/scientist, set the pace for
development and research in medicine but we have lagged behind. The initial successes
with anaesthesia, infectious diseases, antibiotics, open heart surgery, artificial joint surgery
and vaccinations have fallen short with unrealistic expectations of the Genome Project. We
should be ashamed of our failure to cure cancer and HIV disease (despite the resources
available) and to confront environmental problems.
Rapid population (Fig.2) and industrial growth with associated pollution and resource
exhaustion are precipitating a global disaster. Increased life expectancy has resulted from
higher living and social standards, public health measures, education and biomedical
advances. Recently this has been achieved by the education of young women and family
planning. However this success is pushing us towards a globulal population of 11 billion by
2100. We must face-up to the resulting tropical forest destruction, soil erosion, water and
air pollution and global re-warming. We can no longer reign supreme over the environment
thinking that technology and science will fix the problems.
Recent civilization (last 50 – 150 years) has led to the modern City – with its dense
urban population, homelessness, poverty and the creation of an unhealthy “underclass”
from rapid movement between countries and the collapse of public health infrastructure.
The Big City is merely a military citadel (creating an urban hell within) and squandering vital
resources. The “top” eschelons are well but the “underclass” are as sick as the Irish city
dwellers of the 1930s and not much better off than the hunter-food gatherers of the Stone
Age.
The old diseases have re-emerged; TB is at the highest rate in history (one-third of the
world’s population), the bubonic plague is present in major US cities and an extra 50 to 80
million cases of malaria are expected each year.
 

Figure 1
            

Environment Problems
   

Effect Result
   

Urban Air Pollution Caused by oxides of sulphur and nitrogen, CO, particulates and 
metals, secondary formation of acids and ozone. Greater incidence of 
heart and respiratory illness.
   

Drinking water pollution
Food contamination
Adverse working environments
Chemicals such as nitrates, nitrites, metals, pesticides and radioactive 
products. The wars of the 21st century will be fought over this scarce 
resource.
Pesticide, carcinogens, radioactive fall­out, PCB’s, heavy metals. 
Greater controls required for cheap Chinese imports.
 

 
Nuclear weaponry Plutonium (carcinogen/teratogen/mutagen) is now incorporated into all 

  living organisms. Terrorists have plans to acquire such 
technology.This could de stabilize the US , especially if a dirty bomb is 
 
exploded in the US .
   

Wars (Gulf war), Iraq and  Biological/chemical/nuclear agents have devastated ecosystems. 
Afghanistan wars. 2008, and no end in sight for Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

 
   

Loss of ozone and hazards of  Skin cancer, cataracts, plant toxicity.
increased UV radiation  
   
Climatic changes Global rewarming will increase vector­borne disease (malaria, 

  schistosomiasis, Ebola virus). Heat stress in major cities. Starvation 
and injury form droughts, floods and storms. Now most countries 
 
accept this as a reality
 
and hsve carbon emissions policies and plans to introduce carbon 
  trading. It hs to be done carefully not to ruin established industries and 
raise the costs of basic house hold goods and food.

 
Uncontrolled population growth  Reaching 10 billion by 2050 and possibly 11 billion by 2100 will be 
(Fig. ) responsible for 80% of the world’s deforestation and eventual 

  exhaustion of food supplies. Only China has a policy here.

   

Unnatural rates of extinctions Homo sapiens have been here for 100,000 years but is causing 

  extinction of other life­forms at a rate of 1000 times the natural rate.
   
Deforestation Causing rainfall to drop and epidemics of infectious diseases as 

  vectors leave their natural hosts in the destroyed forests and move on 
to man (eg. In malaria).
 
 
 
Urban homelessness/poverty/underclass/collapse public health 
Failure of Modern City 
infrastructure.  Old diseases (TB, bubonic plague, malaria) re­emerge. 
  HIV remains out of control and by 2008 no vaccination is in sight.
 

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Just as the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton so might the problems
of the environment be solved at Olympia . Perhaps not entirely unrealistic. After all the
Olympic Games are the highlight of sport and are dedicated to idealism and the Glory of
Zeus, (the mind, body and spirit of man). Baron Pierre de Coubertin said “The Olympic
movement tends to bring together in a radiant union all the qualities which guide mankind
to perfection.” Athletes, their trainers and health carers and their spectators should care
about not only their bodies but their environs. There seems little sense in a perfect
performance in a planetary junk-yard (Fig. ). The culture of sport needs a new creed.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, there were great concerns re the effect of the severe air
pollution affecting performances and athletes health. ES was in Beijing 9 months earlier and
found it hard to breathe in that city. However, China managed to cut car road users and
industrial emissions over this period. Such extraordinary measures may only be possible in
State monopolies.
         The creed ...

For the athlete of the

Next millennium will be:

∙            I will protect my body

∙            I will protect my environment

 
 

 
 

Protecting the body means not embarking on training schedules and techniques which
have adverse health effects. Rigorous performance schedules for gymnastics and women’s
events may precipitate menstrual dysfunction and eating disorders with both short term
(malnutrition, starvation) and long term consequences (osteoporosis, hip and vertebral
fractures). The dangers of blood doping and performance enhancement drugs are described
in Chapter 4. Athletes using such drugs, especially steroids, are sacrificing their bodies for
short-term achievements. The I.O.C. has rightly taken a hard stand on drugs in sport.
Protecting the environment means athletes and their associations insisting upon
protection of their environment. If the purpose of sport (exercise) is to enhance our health
(physically and intellectually), then it is irrational and dangerous to exercise in a polluted
environment (the main determinant of our health status). Athletic events should only be
staged in cities and countries with a commitment to safe and clean environments. The
alternatives are clear.
The urban athlete inhales above average quantities of air pollutants (when resp minute
volume increases up to 20 x ) which bypasses the nose (filter) with the open mouth (after R
J Shephard, 1984).
There is: drying of the airways, possible cold/dry air induced bronchospasm, respiratory
muscle fatigue and the toxic effect of pollutants. Such effects are maximum in marathons
and road races (cycle/foot).
Air pollutants are either reducing or oxidant forms of smog. Reducing forms (carbon fuels)
consist of smoke particulates, SO2 or SO3. These may induce bronchospasm with later
respiratory infection and viral myocarditis, especially in children in big cities. Oxidant forms
(vehicle exhausts with sunlight) are CO, hydrocarbons, ozone and nitrogen oxides. These
agents affect athletic competition. CO may be lethal (cardiovascular death in elderly and
possibly in the young athlete in competition). Swimming times are slower when levels
exceed 30 ppm. Ozone and nitrogen oxides impair the respiratory system. Competitive
cyclists on open roads absorb lead emitted from cars increases with training. Similarly,
amateur cyclists suffer airway irritation from ozone. 
Team doctors have been required to advise on accommodation in smog ridden cities,
identify congested roads for athletes to avoid (80% of CO comes from cars; pollutants
concentrate in tunnels). Training has been curtailed when ozone levels were high. Whether
adaptation to pollutants occurs and is desirable is debatable.
There must be an awareness of the need of econolgoical compatibility of athletic
performance with the environment in which they are competing. Following Olympic Games
such as the Sydney 2000 Games are being planned with this in mind. “Greening-up for
the Games” means these Games are being staged in sympathy with the needs and
protection of the environment (Fig.4). The construction of the Olympic Stadium at
Homebush Bay (a 760 hectare site of saltmarsh and wetlands which was previously an
industrial dump) has provided the impetus for the biggest and perhaps the "greenest" single
urban remediation. This has involved the preservation of a number of valuable animal (the
rare green and golden bell frog) and plant species. Engineers have constructed a system of
sub-surface drains to collect lechate from contaminated materials to send (isolated from the
natural habitats) to treatment areas.
The development of the facilities is being based on the principles adopted at the 1992 U.N.
Earth Summit. These 2000 Games are being held with a commitment to energy and water
conservation, waste minimisation, air, water and soil quality and protection of cultural and
natural environments. In particular, it is intended to use passive solar building design,
collect wastewater for recycling and protect natural nearby ecosystems.
Precious resources should not be squandered. It is important to avoid constructing huge
Olympic monuments to excess and waste with a legacy of poor future usage and a financial
burden for coming generations ( Montreal 1976) nor to dangerous Political Ideologies
(Nazism Berlin 1936; Communism post-1956, Commercialism in the 1990s). Jack Lovelock
(NZ) single-mindedly won the glamour event of the 1500 m in Berlin 1936, blithely unaware
of the Nazi funfare about him (Fig. 5).
The Medic-O-Games (Medical Olympics) – Inaugural meeting in Sydney 1997 will provide
a forum for medical doctors to discuss the health and environment problems facing us over
the next millennium and to participate in Olympic sporting events themselves. Its aim is to
harness the Olympic spirit to restore idealism to the practice of medicine. Doctors and
sports medicine specialists need to be aware of the impact of an (adverse) environment on
health and their athletes). They need to know how to detect and diagnose environmentally
related problems, identify environmental hazards and appropriately advise
patients/athletes. Physicians in the USA are joining the US Environmental Protection Agency
in the desire to preserve the environment and promote global health.
It is a new concept of harnessing the Olympic Spirit which should establish an
environmental model for the next century and a medical metropolis.
 

           Fundamentals of 

     Sport and the Environment

Our environment determines

Our health status

∙  
  

  Much illness can be prevented

by protecting the environment

∙  

Athletes and doctors can lead the way

∙  

Sport will motivate us

 
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