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Olympic swimmers, a number of the healthiest folks on the planet, are turning to an unlikely, unscientific answer to push back getting sick from competing within the polluted waters of the Seine in Paris: consuming cans of Coke.
Prime swimmers swear by the stuff to forestall an infection, in accordance with athletes of three groups who spoke with The Wall Road Journal.
“The parable of Coca-Cola is true,” Moesha Johnson of Group Australia, mentioned. “We’ll usually have a Coca-Cola afterward simply to attempt to flush out something inside us.”
That technique, which swimmers from the US, New Zealand, and Italy all mentioned with the paper, might not be scientifically sound, even when it’s widespread.
Dr Maria Abreu, president of the American Gastroenterological Affiliation, instructed the Journal that Coke is much less acidic than a wholesome abdomen, which means it doubtless wouldn’t add any infection-fighting energy.
“These are younger, athletic folks, proper? They’re going to be wholesome folks whose abdomen acid goes to be good and sturdy,” she mentioned.
Water high quality within the Seine has been a persistent concern in Paris thus far. Swimming within the river has largely been prohibited for the final century as a result of it’s been too poisonous.
Regardless of French officers spending $1.5bn on infrastructure enhancements forward of the video games, together with to make the Seine cleaner, points have endured.
A check run of the marathon swim course within the Seine was postponed till at this time over considerations about water high quality, although the triathlon blended relay went forward as deliberate the day earlier than.
Final week, Belgium pulled its group from the blended relay occasion after an athlete who beforehand swam within the river obtained sick, and a swimmer for Switzerland additionally missed the competitors attributable to sickness.
Final month, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo swam within the Seine to guarantee athletes in regards to the river’s security.
“So I’m actually proud and completely satisfied and to all those that wish to proceed saying it’s not possible to depollute a river, I inform them, ’Sure it’s doable, we did it,’” she mentioned not too long ago.
Regardless of these reassurances, some argue swimming the Seine was by no means a good suggestion.
“I might by no means have chosen the Seine,” Davey Jones, professor of Environmental science and public well being at Bangor College, instructed BBC Science Focus. “I do know it’s iconic, however it additionally runs by way of a massively urbanised space which is all the time a recipe for catastrophe on the subject of potential publicity to chemical substances or organic pathogens.”