ATHENS: Athletes suffering from asthma face no greater health risk at this summer’s Beijing Olympics than other athletes, in spite of the city’s pollution problem, a European anti-asthma organization said on Tuesday.

Beijing has been under increasing pressure to improve air quality ahead of the August 8-24 Games after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said there was some risk to athletes competing in endurance events lasting more than an hour.

Beijing is one of the most polluted cities in the world and in spite of a 120 billion yuan clean-up over the last decade, air quality remains a big concern.

“I don’t see any greater danger to the athletes suffering from asthma who will be competing in the Beijing Olympics than the other athletes,” said Nikos Papadopoulos, vice president of the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology (EAACI).

“We want to stress that having good diagnosis and treatment means that any athlete suffering from asthma can reach his or her full potential.”

Beijing’s pollution has already claimed its first high-profile victim, with twice Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie, who suffers from asthma, withdrawing from the men’s marathon fearing pollution could damage his health.

Top-class marathon runners compete outdoors for just over two hours. The IOC said it would consider rescheduling events that require physical activity of more than an hour if the air quality on the day was not satisfactory.

Papadopoulos said it was not necessarily only endurance events that could affect athletes suffering from asthma or trigger exercise-induced bronchoconstriction.

“The sprint events can also affect an athlete,” he said, adding the intake of air at these events was several hundred times more than normal quantity, increasing the health risk.