Breathing Stars: ALMA to Help Solving Acute Mountain Sickness Mystery (Forwarded)

ESO Education and Public Relations Dept.

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For Immediate Release: 3 April 2007

ESO ALMA Release 20/07

Breathing Stars

ALMA to Help Solving Acute Mountain Sickness Mystery

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) astronomical project
will not only enlarge our knowledge of the vast Universe beyond the
imaginable. It will also help scientists learn more about the human body.

Located 5000m above sea level, in the Chilean Atacama desert, ALMA is the
highest site for ground-based astronomy. This property will be put to good
use for academic institutions in Chile and in Europe in order to study the
human response to extreme altitude conditions.

During a ceremony held on 2 April in Antofagasta, the largest town close to
ESO's Very Large Telescope, representatives from ALMA, ESO and the
University of Antofagasta have officially launched a collaborative agreement
that also involves the University of Chile and the University of Copenhagen
(Denmark). The newly established cooperation aims at contributing to the
promotion of teaching, scientific research, and the expansion of altitude
physiology and medicine or other related areas considered appropriate.

"An increasing number of people are periodically exposed to brisk changes in
altitude, and not only for astronomical research," said Jacques Lassalle,
the ALMA Safety Manager. "Short stays at high altitude alternate with short
stays at sea level but the corresponding shifts are very often established
by agreement, and not based on scientific arguments. With this project, we
aim at improving our knowledge and procedures in order to protect the long
term health of the operators, engineers, and scientists as well as ALMA
visitors of all ages and all physical conditions," he added.

Around the world, a large number of people systematically commute between
sea level and high altitude, for example when working in mountainous mines.
This poses stringent conditions that may affect health, well-being and
working performance. Some of the factors in question are the shift work
regime, the perturbation of circadian rhythms, fatigue, family and social
isolation, commuting, intermittent high altitude exposure and other
environmental challenges such as low temperatures.

"An adequate acclimatisation to 2500m altitude requires around two weeks,
and we can thus speculate that going to 5000m would require more than one
month to achieve complete acclimatisation," said Professor Juan Silva Urra,
from the University of Antofagasta.

However, short and long term effects of regular commuting between sea level
and high altitude have scarcely been studied in biomedical terms.
Scientifically based guidelines for appropriate preventive handling and care
under these conditions are lacking and the new study will help bridging this
gap.

Among the studies to be done, some involve continuous monitoring of the
human body through portable devices, including measurements of hormone
levels and application of psychometric tests. All measurements at 5000m will
be carried out on a voluntary basis, under strict safety protocols, with the
presence of a doctor from the investigation team, paramedic personnel form
ALMA and an ambulance.

The symptoms of Acute Mountain Sickness are headache, sicknesses,
gastrointestinal inconveniences, fatigue and insomnia that, depending on
their intensities, decrease the capacity to carry out the most routine
activities.

The valuable data collected will enhance our knowledge of human physiology
in extreme environments, generating recommendations that will improve
wellbeing and health not only in high-altitude observatories, but also in
mining and Antarctic personnel.

"We are pleased that ALMA is contributing to other disciplines, like
medicine, even before the antennas begin to explore the universe," said
Felix Mirabel, ESO's representative in Chile. "This outstanding long-term
research that will provide crucial information of human physiology to
experts worldwide, has been made possible thanks to the combined effort of
Chilean and European universities, in collaboration with ALMA".

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international
astronomy facility, is a partnership among Europe, Japan and North America,
in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded in Europe by the
European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere,
in Japan by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) in
cooperation with the Academia Sinica in Taiwan and in North America by the
U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National
Research Council of Canada (NRC). ALMA construction and operations are led
on behalf of Europe by ESO, on behalf of Japan by the National Astronomical
Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) and on behalf of North America by the National
Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), which is managed by Associated
Universities, Inc. (AUI).

National contacts for the media:

Belgium: Dr. Rodrigo Alvarez, +32-2-474 70 50
Finland: Ms. Tiina Raivo, +358 9 7748 8369
Denmark: Dr. Michael Linden-Vnle, +45-33-18 19 97
France: Dr. Daniel Kunth, +33-1-44 32 80 85
Germany: Dr. Jakob Staude, +49-6221-528229
Italy: Dr. Leopoldo Benacchio, +39-347-230 26 51
The Netherlands: Ms. Marieke Baan, +31-20-525 74 80
Portugal: Prof. Teresa Lago, +351-22-089 833
Sweden: Dr. Jesper Sollerman, +46-8-55 37 85 54
Switzerland: Dr. Martin Steinacher, +41-31-324 23 82
United Kingdom: Mr. Peter Barratt, +44-1793-44 20 25

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