OLYMPICS-BRAZIL/POLLUTION-FILE Rio Olympic athletes risk serious illness from polluted water - AP

Record ID: 145662

  • Title: OLYMPICS-BRAZIL/POLLUTION-FILE Rio Olympic athletes risk serious illness from polluted water - AP
  • Date: 30th July 2015
  • Summary: RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (FILE - 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SCIENTISTS FROM BRAZIL'S ENVIRONMENT AGENCY, INEA, COLLECTING WATER SAMPLES FROM THE GUANABARA BAY CLOSE-UP OF INVESTIGATOR COLLECTING WATER SAMPLE INVESTIGATOR FROM BRAZIL'S ENVIRONMENT AGENCY, INEA, PLACING SAMPLES IN RESEARCH EQUIPMENT A INEA SCIENTIST LOOKING AT A WATER SAMPLE CLOSE-UP OF WATER SAMPLE VARIOUS OF
  • Embargoed: 14th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA7K192TWXLH4UD9Z3OHOED621P
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Athletes risk serious illness from dangerously high levels of viruses and bacteria in sewage-contaminated waters at the swimming and boating venues being prepared for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the Associated Press reported on Thursday (July 30).
    Tests conducted by the AP found levels of disease-causing viruses as much as 1.7 million times the level that would be considered hazardous on a Southern California beach.
    Levels of raw sewage, the AP reported, contradict statements by Olympic organizers that the water-sports venues will be safe.
    Some athletes training for the games have already fallen ill, AP said. Pollution levels are equivalent to those in raw sewage, the news agency added.
    The report was based on four rounds of testing by the AP at the venues for sailing and rowing and for the swimming portion of the triathlon, as well as at Rio's famed Ipanema Beach.
    The tests measured levels of human adenovirus, rotavirus and enterovirus as well as fecal-coliform bacteria.
    Concerns of polluted waters have centred on the city's picturesque Guanabara Bay which will host sailing events during the Games.
    Activists and environmentalists, like Brazilian marine biologist Mario Moscatelli, have used Rio's upcoming hosting of the Olympics to put pressure on the government to clean up the fetid waters on the bay and other bodies of water surrounding the beachside city.
    "In which the main objective is to enter into and create a straightjacket that obliges the Brazilian governments, both federal and state, to follow a path to recuperate the Guanabara Bay," Moscatelli said during a protest event on the bay in June.
    Rio de Janeiro Olympic officials told the AP they are only testing for fecal-coliform bacteria, the basis for water quality in most countries, and that their testing finds the water to be in line with Brazilian rules.
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