Rio Olympic Water Badly Polluted, Even Far Offshore

Olympic sailor Erik Heil floated a novel idea to protect himself from the sewage-infested waters he and other athletes will compete in during next year’s games: He'd wear plastic overalls and peel them off when he was safely past the contaminated waters nearest shore.
Rio Olympic Water Badly Polluted, Even Far Offshore
Doctoral candidate Rodrigo Staggemeier collects water along the shore of Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Oct. 26, 2015. Many of the estimated 350,000 foreigners to visit during the 2016 Olympics are expected to take a dip at the popular beach. AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo
The Associated Press
Updated:

RIO DE JANEIRO—Olympic sailor Erik Heil floated a novel idea to protect himself from the sewage-infested waters he and other athletes will compete in during next year’s games: He'd wear plastic overalls and peel them off when he was safely past the contaminated waters nearest shore.

Heil, 26, was treated at a Berlin hospital for MRSA, a flesh-eating bacteria, shortly after sailing in an Olympic test event in Rio in August. But his strategy to avoid a repeat infection won’t limit his risk.

A new round of testing by The Associated Press shows the city’s Olympic waterways are as rife with pathogens far offshore as they are nearer land, where raw sewage flows into them from fetid rivers and storm drains. That means there is no dilution factor in the bay or lagoon where events will take place and no less risk to the health of athletes like sailors competing farther from the shore.

“Those virus levels are widespread. It’s not just along the shoreline but it’s elsewhere in the water, therefore it’s going to increase the exposure of the people who come into contact with those waters,” said Kristina Mena, an expert in waterborne viruses and an associate professor of public health at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. “We’re talking about an extreme environment, where the pollution is so high that exposure is imminent and the chance of infection very likely.”

In July, the AP reported that its first round of tests showed disease-causing viruses directly linked to human sewage at levels up to 1.7 million times what would be considered highly alarming in the U.S. or Europe. Experts said athletes were competing in the viral equivalent of raw sewage and exposure to dangerous health risks almost certain.

The results sent shockwaves through the global athletic community, with sports officials pledging to do their own viral testing to ensure the waters were safe for competition in next year’s games. Those promises took on further urgency in August, after pre-Olympic rowing and sailing events in Rio led to illnesses among athletes nearly double the acceptable limit in the U.S. for swimmers in recreational waters.

Germany's Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel compete in the men's 49er skiff gold fleet 1 race 10 at the Sailing Championships in Perth, Australia, on Dec 16, 2011. Heil had to be treated at a Berlin hospital for MRSA, a flesh-eating bacteria, shortly after sailing in an Olympic test event in August at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where tests by The Associated Press have found high contamination in waters to be used in the 2016 Olympics. (AP Photo/Theron Kirkman)
Germany's Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel compete in the men's 49er skiff gold fleet 1 race 10 at the Sailing Championships in Perth, Australia, on Dec 16, 2011. Heil had to be treated at a Berlin hospital for MRSA, a flesh-eating bacteria, shortly after sailing in an Olympic test event in August at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where tests by The Associated Press have found high contamination in waters to be used in the 2016 Olympics. AP Photo/Theron Kirkman