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ENVIRONMENT-SPORT-TOKYO-OLY-2020-WEATHER-HEALTH
Feeling the heat: Tokyo preps for sweltering Summer Olympics
TOKYO, July 20, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A heatwave in Japan that has killed more
than a dozen people is reviving concerns about the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which
will be held during the country’s notoriously sweltering summer.
While the Games have been held in places that are hotter or more humid than
Tokyo, including Athens and Beijing, Japan’s sweaty summers offer both
blistering heat and smothering humidity in a particularly unpleasant, and
sometimes deadly, combination.
Olympic officials and Tokyo’s local government are touting measures from
solar-blocking paint on roads to mobile misting stations to tackle the heat.
But some experts fear the efforts are insufficient, in a country where
summer heat kills hundreds of people and hospitalises tens of thousands each
year.
The Games will be held from July 24-August 9, a period where temperatures
can hit 37 degrees Celsius and humidity rises to over 80 percent.
“Compared to past Olympics, it’s fair to say that this will be the most
severe Games, as far as heat conditions go,” said Makoto Yokohari, a
professor of urban engineering at the University of Tokyo.
The International Olympic Committee has approved moving the marathon start
to 7:00am, with the men’s competitive walking beginning even earlier.
And Tetsuo Egawa, senior director of operation strategy planning for Tokyo
2020’s organising committee, is working on other ways to beat the heat.
“The sports that tend to raise the most concern are the non-stadium ones,”
he told AFP, citing the marathon, sailing and canoeing, and golf as examples
where “special measures” will be needed.
The main concern is heatstroke, particularly among spectators unused to hot
weather who will spend hours outdoors watching events or queuing.
“We will have tents covering queues at security gates… (and) we are
aiming to limit lines to 20 minutes long,” Egawa said.
– Solar-blocking paint –
Large fans will cool people down and the new national stadium has been
constructed to encourage air flow. Medical tents and rest areas will be air-
conditioned.
Stress can increase the risk of heatstroke, so organisers will try to keep
spectators relaxed even in queues.
“There may be small shows and entertainment… maybe shows that involve
spraying mist on people,” Egawa said.
Summer heat is hardly new for Tokyo, which experiences the “heat island”
effect where urban areas are much warmer than surrounding regions, for
reasons including blocked airflow and lack of greenery.
Local officials say Tokyo’s temperature has risen by three degrees Celsius
in the last century, far more than the global rise of 0.7-0.8 degrees.
Tokyo officials have been working on the problem for years, but efforts are
ramping up ahead of the Games.
One project aims to repopularise a Japanese tradition: “uchimizu”, or the
sprinkling of water on the street to bring temperatures down.
Another measure is solar-blocking “paint”, which will cover the entire
marathon route, though only on the road, not pavements where spectators will
stand.
Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) officials say the coating can reduce
temperatures at road level by up to eight degrees Celsius.
In other places they are laying road surface that can absorb rain water,
which evaporates when temperatures rise and cools the air.
– ‘Dangerous conditions’ –
“We take heat mitigation very seriously,” said Susumu Matsushima, an
official with the TMG’s road management bureau.
He said 116 kilometres of road have already been treated, most of it with
the solar-blocking coating.
“If you touch (the road) you can really feel the difference, especially on
a sunny day.”
But not everyone is convinced, with some noting that when Tokyo last hosted
the Olympics, in 1964, the Games were held in October to avoid the heat.
Yokohari has studied the marathon route and warns that “athletes will run
in very dangerous conditions,” particularly in the last quarter of the race
when they pass Tokyo’s Imperial Palace.
“I believe athletes will feel significant damage to their bodies in this
phase,” he told AFP.
“There is absolutely no shade.”
While the marathon will start early, Yokohari would prefer to see the route
itself altered so runners are in the shade in later stages.
He says plans to put in trees for shade are impractical with only two years
to go, and even proposes moving the marathon to somewhere cooler in northern
Japan.
“Unfortunately, the sense of urgency I feel is not shared by people
concerned,” he said.
“Tokyo residents may say ‘oh we know and are used to the heat’… but how
many of us in Tokyo spend hours outdoors in the peak of August heat?”
BSS/AFP/MRI/1010 hrs