Shuck Bush

16 April 2008

Let’s take a look at what our Olympic athletes will face in Beijing. We are looking at possibly the most polluted city in the world. Brown coal is used in coal-burning heaters and stoves and a brown haze hangs over the city. That haze traps all kinds of pollution from industries. Ozone and particulate matter from diesel engines is five times as high as maximum standards set by the World Health Organization. As car ownership surges about 3.5 million vehicles are on Beijing’s roadways and about 1,200 new cars being added each day. Beijing pledged to stage “green Games” by placing restrictions on pollution producing industries and they expected a change in the air by the end of 2007.

But just this week a freeze was scheduled to be put on construction projects, a slow down on steel production and the shut down of quarries around the city. Spray-painting will be banned before and after sporting events and toxic solvents outdoors will be forbidden. This was all supposed to happen long before now but will actually begin in July. This is all too little too late. I spent 2 weeks in Xi’an, China, another very polluted city and coughed for a month after my return home. This was after I tried daily not to breath too deeply while outdoors. Think about the breathing actions of our athletes.

If Beijing’s air remains too polluted in the days leading up the Games, officials stated that they would take “stringent steps” to curb polluting industries. Your guess is as good as mine as to just what those steps would be. My guess is that one step will be a traffic restriction around games time. Since it is well known that Beijing is terribly polluted, how in the world was it selected to host the summer games. In my opinion, a very poor choice. On especially smoggy days energetic games will have to be postponed. Great! Officials are trying to get reporters to tell the public how much better Beijing’s air had become in recent years. I sure hope that none of our athletes develop COPD from exposure to severe pollution but I guess that only happens after longer exposure than they will be faced with during the games. The indoor environment will be equally bad as there are no restrictions about smoking in restaurants and bars and the Chinese are known to be heavy smokers.

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