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  • Personal strategies to mitigate the effects of air pollution exposure during sport and exercise: a narrative review and position statement by the Canadian Academy of Sport and Exercise Medicine and the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology

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Consensus statement
Personal strategies to mitigate the effects of air pollution exposure during sport and exercise: a narrative review and position statement by the Canadian Academy of Sport and Exercise Medicine and the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology
  1. Andy Hung1,
  2. Sarah Koch2,3,
  3. Valerie Bougault4,
  4. Cameron Marshall Gee5,6,
  5. Romulo Bertuzzi7,
  6. Malindi Elmore6,
  7. Paddy McCluskey6,8,
  8. Laura Hidalgo2,3,
  9. Judith Garcia-Aymerich2,3,
  10. Michael Stephen Koehle1,9
  1. 1 School of Kinesiology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
  2. 2 Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
  3. 3 Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
  4. 4 Laboratoire Motricité Humaine Expertise Sport Santé, Université Côte d’Azur, Nice, France
  5. 5 International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries, Faculty of Medicine, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
  6. 6 Athletics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  7. 7 Endurance Performance Research Group, School of Physical Education and Sport, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
  8. 8 Canadian Sport Institute – Pacific, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
  9. 9 Division of Sport & Exercise Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
  1. Correspondence to Dr Michael Stephen Koehle, School of Kinesiology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; michael.koehle{at}ubc.ca

Abstract

Air pollution is among the leading environmental threats to health around the world today, particularly in the context of sports and exercise. With the effects of air pollution, pollution episodes (eg, wildfire conflagrations) and climate change becoming increasingly apparent to the general population, so have their impacts on sport and exercise. As such, there has been growing interest in the sporting community (ie, athletes, coaches, and sports science and medicine team members) in practical personal-level actions to reduce the exposure to and risk of air pollution. Limited evidence suggests the following strategies may be employed: minimising all exposures by time and distance, monitoring air pollution conditions for locations of interest, limiting outdoor exercise, using acclimation protocols, wearing N95 face masks and using antioxidant supplementation. The overarching purpose of this position statement by the Canadian Academy of Sport and Exercise Medicine and the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology is to detail the current state of evidence and provide recommendations on implementing these personal strategies in preventing and mitigating the adverse health and performance effects of air pollution exposure during exercise while recognising the limited evidence base.

  • athletes
  • sport
  • exercise
  • air pollution

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2022-106161

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @VBougault, @CameronMGee, @mskoehle

    • Funding SK was funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship by the European Commission (840513). ISGlobal acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the 'Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2019-2023' Program (CEX2018-000806-S), and the Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA Program.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.

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