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SCIENCEThursday 3 December 2015

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

Workers remove garbage collected by floating waste barriers in the Meriti River, which flows into officials have flip-flopped Rodrigo Freitas Lagoon
Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A new round of testing by The Associated Press shows on promises to carry out and the famous Copaca-
the city’s Olympic waterways are as rife with pathogens far offshore as they are nearer land, their own viral testing in bana Beach. Rio won the
where raw sewage flows into them from fetid rivers and storm drains. the wake of the AP’s July right to host the Olympics
report. based on a lengthy bid
(AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo) At issue are two kinds of document that promised
testing. to clean up the city’s sce-
BRAD BROOKS offshore where athletes will showed viruses causing Brazilian, Olympic and nic waterways by improv-
Associated Press compete in sailing, rowing stomach and respiratory WHO officials now say Bra- ing sewage sanitation, a
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — and canoeing. illnesses and more rarely zil needs only to conduct pledge that was intended
The Olympic waters in this That means there is no di- heart and brain inflamma- testing for bacterial “mark- to be one of the event’s
city are more widely con- lution factor in the bay or tion at levels up to 1.7 mil- ers” of pollution to deter- biggest legacies.
taminated by sewage lagoon where events will lion times what would be mine water quality. That’s Brazilian officials now ac-
than previously known take place. considered highly alarm- the standard for nations knowledge that won’t
and pose a greater threat “It’s going to increase the ing in the U.S. or Europe. around the globe to moni- happen.
to athletes’ health ahead exposure of the people The report prompted tor waterbodies, mostly The AP’s first published re-
of next year’s games, ac- who come into contact sports officials to promise because it’s been histori- sults were based on sam-
cording to new results from with those waters,” said they would do their own cally easier and cheaper. ples taken along the shores
tests commissioned by The Kristina Mena, a U.S. expert viral testing. Those pledges “The health and safety of of the lagoon where row-
athletes is always a top ing and canoeing events
Associated Press. in waterborne viruses. “If took on further urgency in priority and there is no will be held. Other samples
Expanded analysis of Rio’s we saw those levels here August, after pre-Olympic doubt that water within were drawn from the ma-
waterways shows that high in the United States on rowing and sailing events the field of play meets rina where sailors enter the
viral and in some cases beaches, officials would in Rio led to illnesses among the relevant standards,” water and in the Copaca-
bacterial counts are found likely close those beach- athletes nearly double the the Rio 2016 Olympic or- bana Beach surf, where
not just along shorelines es.” acceptable limit in the U.S. ganizing committee said marathon and triathlon
where raw sewage runs In July, the AP reported Nevertheless, Olympic and in an emailed statement swimming will take place.
into waterbodies, but far that its first round of tests World Health Organization Tuesday. “Rio 2016 follows Ipanema Beach, popu-
the expert advice of the lar with tourists and where
In massive stranding, 337 whales beached in Chile World Health Organiza- many of the expected
tion, whose guidelines for 350,000 foreign visitors
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — made the discovery along The cause of death of the Safe Recreational Water will take a dip during the
The coast of southern Chile with other scientists in June whales is unknown, al- Environments recommend games, was also tested.
has become a grave for during an observation flight though human interven- classifying water through a Since then, the AP ex-
337 sea whales that were over fjords in Chile’s south- tion has been ruled out. regular program of micro- panded its testing to in-
found beached in what ern Patagonia region. The scientific expedition bial water quality testing.” clude offshore sampling
scientists say is one of the The team has been col- counted 305 bodies and However, in recent years sites inside Olympic sail-
biggest whale strandings lecting samples since then. 32 skeletons of whales technological advances ing courses in Guanabara
ever recorded. She declined to disclose through aerial and satellite have made it simpler and Bay and in the middle of
Biologist Vreni Hausser- the conclusions, which will photography in an area less expensive to monitor the lagoon where rowing
mann told The Associated be published by a scientific between the Gulf of Penas viral levels, too. and canoeing lanes were
Press this week that she journal later this year. and Puerto Natales.q Studies dating back de- located during recent test
cades have shown little events. Not only has the
to no correlation between AP testing since August
the levels of bacteria found the waterbodies to
pathogens in water, which be consistently virus-lad-
quickly break down in salty en throughout, but it also
and sunny conditions like captured a spike in the
those in tropical Brazil, and bacterial fecal coliforms
the presence of viruses, in the lagoon — to over 16
which have been shown times the amount permit-
to last for months, and in ted under Brazilian law.
some cases years. Athletes have made ef-
Rio’s waterways, like forts to avoid falling ill, from
those of many develop- bleaching rowing oars to
ing nations, are extremely preemptively taking antibi-
contaminated because otics, which have no effect
most of the city’s sew- on viruses, to simply hosing
age is untreated, flowing off their bodies the second
into Guanabara Bay, the they finish competing.q