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CanadaNational cross-country ski teams look to gain every advantage they can to cross the finish line first—everything from the latest advances in sports science, emerging eating trends involving superfoods, cryogenic recovery, cutting-edge training techniques and innovative equipment. But air purifiers?
Seems the Finnish National Cross-Country Ski Team tapped into commercial-grade air purifier manufacturer AeraMax Professional to help keep its winning ways. The team has a rolling maintenance center—a specially-equipped large RV vehicle—that it takes to multi-day meets to service skis and provide a gathering place for the athletes.
As part of the maintenance of the skis, technicians use a variety of waxes with fluorinated compounds to make the skis slicker, depending on terrain and conditions. So, during the course of a meet, skis might get different coatings applied in the enclosed maintenance workshop environment—and that’s a problem.
Dangerous Perfluorochemicals
A variety of studies done in Sweden and Norway have found that wax technicians servicing the skis for national teams had high concentrations of dangerous perfluorochemicals (PFCs) from the waxes in their bloodstreams. The chemicals are breathed in during the application of the fluorinated compound wax, which gives off vapors; the PFCs can lead to cardiovascular disease, liver damage and even cancer.
The process of waxing skis often produces an assortment of fumes and airborne particles. Technicians in tight spaces essentially iron and scrap old wax off skis before using chemical waxes to apply a fresh coating. In the Norwegian study, researchers found that PFCs were in 11 different race waxes used by professional skiers.
So, the Finnish team sought to make their mobile maintenance center healthier for both the technicians and the skiers, who use the RV to rest and relax before and after races.
To this end, the RV was outfitted with AeraMax Professional III air purifiers, with two units in the service area, where most airborne contaminants lurk, and one in the skiers’ lounge area. The result: cleaner, fresher air, because AeraMax Professional air purifiers remove up to 99.97 percent of airborne pollutants from enclosed rooms.
Can AeraMax Professional make the Finnish finish faster?
So, can AeraMax Professional make the Finnish finish faster? Debatable. But it surely can make the team from Finland healthier. And that might mean an edge during competition.
