AIRBENDER
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Date
2020
Authors
Bartoszek, Oli
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
The starting target market for the Airbender is both males and females between the
ages of 20 - 30. It is targeted at endurance athletes, but more specifically sub-elite
distance runners who train 4-6 times a week primarily for personal wellness. In major
cities across the world, and more notably in developing countries with poor
environmental regulations, air pollution is considered a major risk to health, responsible
for as many as 8 million deaths per year worldwide11 and a decrease in life expectancy
of 2 years12. "To put this into perspective, this means that air pollution causes more
extra deaths a year than tobacco smoking, which the World Health Organization
estimates was responsible for an extra 7.2 million deaths in 2015. Smoking is avoidable
but air pollution is not.”11 Although there are various industrial and recreational air
filtration masks available, there are no options designed specifically for athletes where
fit and air flow rate are the most important features.As it relates to China and Beijing in particular, studies by Greenpeace have found 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.”13 In the
same study the researcher commented, “even running on lightly polluted days a lot of
people will think, ‘Oh, the AQI is only 100 so I can go for a jog. What many of people
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 a heavily polluted day, then don’t go
running when it’s lightly polluted out.”13 All of this is to say that quite simply, exercising in
city with air as polluted as Beijing’s can have serious implications on your health.
Currently, aside from industrial and various lifestyle masks, there is nothing geared
towards athletes who are most in need of protection from pollution.
Description
89 pages
Keywords
Endurance athletes, Running, Air pollution, Air filtration masks