Running on Empty: Just How Bad is it to Go Jogging on Polluted Days?

This post is sponsored by Origins, a young technology company based in Beijing that develops cutting edge smart devices designed to help people build and sustain a healthy lifestyle.
 

Last fall’s Beijing Marathon attracted throngs of eager sprinters, much to the surprise of Liam Bates, the founder of Origins – a Beijing-based provider of affordable air purifiers and high tech AQI monitors. It wasn’t that Bates is against running, he just didn’t see the point of dashing across the finish line on that smoggy October day, when the AQI had reached an unhealthy level of 350. 

“The air quality was so bad … it was the kind of day that I would not even consider going outside. But I saw all these people running, which seemed to me like the craziest thing ever,” he says.

Bates explains that exercising outdoors on smoggy days is a bad idea because the exertion causes heavier breathing and a greater intake of deadly PM2.5 particles. “There were all these people running that day with masks on. But what’s the point of running when you can’t breathe?”  

Concerned and curious Bates wondered what exactly happens if you run outdoors without a mask on polluted days. “Surely the cons must outweigh the pros of that exercising, but I had no data to back these opinions up,” he explains.
 


 

So Bates began digging for information and was alarmed to find that he was not only right, but that the risks are worse than he had imagined. One startling figure was just how much more air a runner takes in during a marathon – four hours of such a strenuous activity equates to more breathing than an entire 24 hour day at rest. 

Further number crunching revealed that the Beijing marathon runners likely inhaled 12.6mg of PM2.5 during the four-hour race because the AQI was 350 that day and the average breathing rate during exercise is 150 liters per minute. 
 


 

To clarify, 12.6mg of those filthy particles is enough to turn a breathing mask’s filter from white to a grungy dark brown. Bates came across a photo of one such clogged filter on Greenpeace’s website. The NGO had posted the image online as part of a study of the pollution intake of nine Beijing volunteers at rest in a 24 hour period. 

The Greenpeace study also revealed that the Capital’s smog is laced with a range of heavy metals, the worst being arsenic, which reaches six times the Chinese and European limits on heavily polluted days. Bates wrote a post about these findings on Origins website, where he pointed out that arsenic was used as a poison by the Romans, and that some historical accounts even cite it is as the toxin that might have been used to kill Napoleon. 
 


 

Bates also pointed out how Beijingers now breathe in arsenic every day and sarcastically quipped: “So other than breathing in a dangerous level of arsenic, a whole blend of heavy metals and a few PM2.5 dust monsters, running the marathon is a great way to stay fit and healthy.” 

He now says that if the marathon runners had known just how much extra pollution they were taking in, they likely would have reconsidered taking part in the race. “When you’re running you are deeply breathing in more air [than normal] so you’re essentially sucking the pollution deep down into your lungs.”

Bates adds that even running on lightly polluted days (at least by Beijing standards) is a bad idea. “A lot of people will think, ‘Oh, the AQI is only 100 so I can go for a jog. What many of them don’t know is that jogging when the AQI is 100 is the same as walking when the AQI is 250. If you wouldn’t walk without a mask on such heavily polluted day, then don’t go running when it’s lightly polluted out.”

He suggests that anyone looking to keep fit should invest in an air purification system for their homes so that they can safely exercise indoors. He adds: “The reason that most people run is to stay fit and be in good health. But what you’re simply doing is breathing in a lot more polluted air [into your lungs], so it’s better to simply exercise indoors.” 

For more information on the Laser Egg, visit the Origins website at www.origins-china.com. The Laser Egg is now available for order on Jingdong.com.

Photos: Uni You, Mike Wester, Joey Guo, and from Flickr Creative Commons

Comments

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I think for heart disease is better exercising, but not for the lungs.

Evalua)on of Premature Mortality Caused by Exposure to PM2.5 and Ozone in East Asia: 2000, 2005, 2020, Water Air and Soil PolluCon, 223, 3445-­‐3459, 2012.

I have some information abou health.

Short-­‐term effects of gaseous pollutants and par)culate marer on daily hospital
admissions for cardio-­‐cerebrovascular disease in Lanzhou: evidence
from a heavily polluted city in China. InternaConal journal of Environmental Research and
Public Health. 10, 462-­‐477, 2013.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3155/1047-3289.57.7.785

Obesity enhanced respiratory health effects of ambient air pollution in Chinese children:
the Seven Northeastern Cities study. InternaConal Journal of Obesity.

Blood pressure changes and chemical cons)tuents of par)culate air pollu)on: Results from
the Health Volunteer Natural Reloca)on (HVNR)Study. Envrionmental Health ProspecCves.
121, 66-­‐72, 2013.

Size distribu)ons of aerosol sulfates and nitrates in Beijing during the 2008 Olympic Games: Impacts of pollu)on control measures and regional transport. Advances in Atmospheric Science. 30, 341-­‐35, 2013.

Thanks for that info, Jecabrer - that's really helpful.

It looks like the jury is still very much out on just how bad it is to exercise outdoors on smoggy days.

For now I'll just stick indoors to exercise on polluted days - there are a lot of great simple and fast workouts that can be done in your bedroom and living room (which I think we can cover in a future post) and I feel smothered enough in a mask just walking around as it is.

 

Jerry Chan, Digital Marketing & Content Strategy Director

I agree that it's always good to be cautious on bad days, and I always still choose to wear a mask when the AQI is over 200 (even 150). But having said that, no exercise at all almost certainly is worse for your health than exercise outside. That was proven with a famous study of Shanghai women here http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/165/12/1343.full Here's my article about bicycling in pollution http://www.myhealthbeijing.com/china-public-health/good-news-biking-in-beijing-helps-more-than-hurts/

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Richard Saint Cyr MD

Blog | Weibo | Clinic

Hi,

There are studies in Shanghai related to the exposure to black carbon. IN Beijing a lot of people still use carbon for cooking inside the houses.

Personal exposure to black carbon during commuting in peak and off-peak hours in Shanghai.

You can read about PAHs on this paper.

Particulate matter, gaseous and particulate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in an urban traffic tunnel of China:
Emission from on-road vehicles and gas-particle partitioning. They monitor other kinds of pollutants.

Related to cardiovascular disease:

Cost saving potential in cardiovascular hospital costs due to reduction in
air pollution. Stefanie Devos a, Bianca Cox b, Stijn Dhondt a, Tim Nawrot b,c, Koen Putmana.

I have some information related to the pollutants generated as a by product of ozone, no health problems related with these pollutants have been found. You can search on internet Charles J. Weschler Rutgers UniversityTechnical University of Denmark or more information. It is really interesting, he studies indoor pollution, ozone reacts with the skin and other human substances to produce organic pollutants.

Relate with risk assestment.

http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/3_90_022.html

http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/3_90_024.html

http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/3_90_023.html

I personally after a conversation with some experts in the field of environmental protection that the uncertainities in the studies conducted are too high. I talked about this with the head of the division of air pollution in the California Institue of Technonology, I have not talked with people that works in this field in the medical area, or Public Health. I am not an expert at all, this is not even my area of knowledge. I am just interested because I live here.

I think the important thing is being wise, If the day is polluted and you can do exercise in your house with an air purifier it is better. Althought the question is if you cannot do exercise in your house the risk related to health problems is bigger going to exercise outside or staying home. I would use a mask and do exercise.

Thanks for the comments, Dr Richard. Could you provide the links to the articles you mentioned? As a person in the "sensitive group" who is also keen on getting regular cardiovascular exercise I'd like to find out more about the pros and cons of exercising outdoors on smoggy Beijing days. It's a shame to not be able to go running outside as much as I'd like to (not to mention letting my kids play outside for longer).

Hyperbolic or not, I do think Liam has a point about being cautious when it comes to running outside on smoggy days - so for now I prefer to play it safe and exercise indoors on days with higher AQI levels. I can certainly feel the difference in my sinuses and lungs.

Jerry Chan, Digital Marketing & Content Strategy Director

I agree that this article is a bit too fear-mongering and not so evidence based. The author provides no comparison data about the benefits of so many hours of cardiac exercise. And as I mentioned on a few articles on my blog, quite a few studies of exercise outdoors, even in China, have shown that the cardiac benefits far outweigh the risks from air pollution. The ratio wasn't even close, sometimes a 9 to 1 benefit/risk difference. I haven't seen any data about extreme exercises in terrible days, so I'm sure that risk/benefit ratio gets a lot less. I would assume that the benefits still outweigh the risks but I just don't have data. I would still think a pollution mask would help, but only if you could still breathe easily through them -- most are really uncomfortable in heavy exercise.

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Richard Saint Cyr MD

Blog | Weibo | Clinic

Guest wrote:

you are one clueless dope aren't you?

who is a clueless dope?

 

Books by current and former Beijinger staffers

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hajarvel wrote:

12 mgs of PM 2.5 is exactly the amount of PM 2.5s in one cigarette. But is sure looks bad, and sure there are some sensitive individuals (e.g. asthmatics) who may get symptoms from it. But for the most people this is not something that's going to kill you.

 

I'd be curious to hear from smokers: what would it be like to run a marathon while smoking a cigarette?

Books by current and former Beijinger staffers

http://astore.amazon.com/truerunmedia-20

12 mgs of PM 2.5 is exactly the amount of PM 2.5s in one cigarette. But is sure looks bad, and sure there are some sensitive individuals (e.g. asthmatics) who may get symptoms from it. But for the most people this is not something that's going to kill you.