LONDON OLYMPICS officials were already considering a ban on vuvuzelas, but now good old health and safety has given them an extra reason to dump the plastic horn made famous at the 2010 World Cup.
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New research from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine reports that vuvuzelas can spread germs faster than coughs and sneezes and that could be enough to doom the chances of the one-note trumpet becoming the background noise to the 2012 Games.
“Just as with coughs or sneezes, action should be taken to prevent disease transmission,” said Dr Ruth McNerney, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
“People with infections must be advised against blowing their vuvzelas close to other people.”
Murray and her team don’t come right out and call for a ban, instead saying that vuvuzelas shouldn’t be blown in “enclosed spaces and where there is a risk of infecting others.”
But, given that Olympics staff won’t be able to ask for a doctor’s certificate from every spectator and that a packed stadium is an “enclosed space”, it is thought likely there will a total ban on vuvuzelas.
Earlier this year, Olympics bosses issues a list of banned items that included musical instruments, so vuvzelas were already on borrowed time.
