The amount of particulates we inhale
If an elite athlete trains for 5 hours a day,
sleeps for 8 hours and spends 11 hours
doing ordinary everyday activities, he or
she can take in approximately 73 m³ of air.
If we assume that normal outdoor air contains
around 20 million particles per m³,
this means that the elite athlete breathes
in 1.4 billion particles which are 0.3 μm in
size every day.
By comparison, an ordinary person inhales
25 m³ of air per day. This includes 260
million particles that are 0.3 μm in size.
Therefore, the elite athlete takes in 1.14
billion more particles during a day.
Clean air for better recovery
Given the overall impact of pollution on
the lung tissues, in combination with other
reactions, for a part of every day elite
athletes need to breathe air that has been