Olympics Organizers Want Us to Believe that Blowing Off Steam Is Dangerous to Our Health

Taxpayers' money was given to fund a study on how far football fans' vuvuzela horns spread 'respiratory aerosol' and the Olympics may ban the horns for it.

by Heidi Stevenson

25 May 2011

If you haven't heard them, you can count your blessings. Vuvuzelas are loud and obnoxious—and a perfect way to blow off steam at a sports event. If the Olympics organizers think that they're too loud or too déclassé...well, those may be legitimate reasons to ban the things. But that's not what they're doing. Instead, they're trying to appeal to the fear factor. They're trying to convince us that they're dangerous to our health.

That's right. They want us to fear that people blowing horns might spray bits of saliva all over the place and spread diseases. Hmmm...That doesn't sound pleasant, does it? But what's the difference between that and toys that children blow on? Or the used air that people blow out of their noses with every breath? Or kazoos?

A Scientific Study on Vuvuzela Spray?

Yes, scientists actually took it upon themselves—with a generous dollop of money from the British taxpayers through the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council and the Department for International Development, and one received salary from the Medical Research Council—to do a study on their hypothesis that "vuvuzelas might facilitate the generation and dissemination of respiratory aerosols". It's been published in the journal PLoS One.⁽¹⁾

They determined that "plastic blowing horns (vuvuzelas) have the capacity to propel extremely large numbers of aerosols into the atmosphere." They also suggested, "Further investigation is required to assess the potential of the vuvuzela to contribute to the transmission of aerosol borne diseases."

So, I suppose that the British taxpayers are on the hook to cough up (sorry 'bout that expression in this context) even more money to support these researchers in the style to which they've become accustomed.

Promulgating Fear

Isn't there a limit on how much fear we should have? When a flu epidemic threatens—or not, as the case may be—the authorities tell us that we should avoid touching each other. Seriously, what kind of sense is there in that? We need to touch. It's part of the nature of being human. Without it, our health goes bad.

Besides, the reality that we do not live in a sterile world needs to be acknowledged at some point. Even more importantly, it needs to be acknowledged that nothing could be worse for our health than to live in a sterile world. We literally could not exist in one.

Gut bacteria is absolutely necessary for our survival. Sterility would put an end to all the friendly bacteria, too. In fact, in our zeal to sterilize every surface, the harm done to friendly bacteria inside our bodies has helped create drug resistant diseases. By erasing the bacterial balance from the gut, nothing stands in check of a mutated form, and it's a pretty sure bet that the infectious form is the one that will mutate into a virulent drug-resistant type of disease.

This zeal to sterilize the world is insane. The UK's Olympics organizers are spreading fear for no real benefit. Yes, it's true that someone blowing a vuvuzela will spread his or her germs further and faster. That just means they'll be spread thinner. The reality is that we come into contact with other people's germs constantly, simply by breathing in the air that they breathe out. By touching them. By touching things they've touched. It's unavoidable and it's healthy!

Yes, that's right. It's healthy. We cannot possibly become resistant to infections unless we're exposed to them. The more we try to prevent it, the weaker we become. Certainly, there's a happy balance to be found—but any chance of finding it is entirely lost when the Olympic organizers and the authors of a study about it spread fear that vuvuzelas are going to spray germs and make us all sick.

We are part of this world, bacteria and all. This distorted idea that we must be made safe from every potentially infective agent is both an impossible and pointless goal. If there's a concern that vuvuzelas would be distracting to the athletes or simply too loud for the people near them, then ban them for those reasons. But, for crying out loud, let's stop medicalizing and sterilizing every aspect of our lives!

If, by chance, you haven't had the dubious pleasure of hearing vuvuzelas, here's a brief—very brief, for which you can thank me—video of them being sounded at a football match. I'd advise you to turn the volume way down before starting it:

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