Beijing Pollution

Hey, remember the Beijing Olympics? Remember, also, all the talk about the pollution during said Olympics? Well, the Chinese government, it seems, realized that the city's pollution was getting waaaay out of hand, and has been working extremely hard to lower pollution levels throughout the city. And, as the New York Times reports, the efforts seem to be working.

Through September, the government counted 221 days in which the 0-to-500 pollution index — the lower the number, the better — was below 101. It was the greatest number of “blue-sky days,” as the city calls them, since daily measurements were first published in 1998. At the same time, the city has recorded only 2 days with dangerously high air pollution. That is the lowest number in a decade, and fully 17 days fewer than were logged in the same period in 2000.

These numbers aren't quite as comprehensive as, say, American pollution standards, and some warn that they could even be wildly inaccurate. As well, it is very important to remember that the air is, really, far from clean. More

The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week's most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

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You may have noticed quite a bit of information flowing from this website concerning the city of Beijing and the problem of pollution leading up to the Olympic Games, but by no means is this problem limited to China's capital city. As the city itself has been working to clear the air around the area the games will be held, high-polluting factories haven't simply shut down around Beijing - they've been moved to outlying regions.The Washington Post reports that when China was given the Summer Games back in 2001, the government immediately went to work reducing pollution around Beijing. But the main goal, it seems, has not been to reduce pollution around the country. One such example from the article:

As recently as five years ago, [one] region about 125 miles east of Beijing was a resort, and its sea overflowed with pike, flounder and carp. Now there are few fish, and it's a rare day when Zhang, 53, can see the sun through the smoke. She can tell the direction of the winds from the color of the soot blowing by her home. The gray iron deposits come from the southern steel mills, while the white powder comes from chemical factories, and black dust from coal and coking plants.

The potential effect of China's pollution on the 2008 Summer Olympic Games is becoming more and more obvious, as the world record holder in the men's marathon stated a few months back he will not compete due to pollution, and now the woman's world record holder says that the pollution could force her to wear a mask when not competing.   Yesterday, Paula Radcliffe stated that the use of a mask while in Beijing may be necessary to help keep her asthma in check.   In an interview with BBC Radio, she said,

"I think the biggest factor is going to be runny eyes, runny nose and sore throat after the event - and if things go according to plan in the race, I don't particularly care. The biggest thing for me is to make sure my asthma is under control - which it is - and minimise the effects of pollution in the lead-up to the race." [news.scotsman.com]

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Beijing's air is so bad that Olympic athletes are being advised to wear "specially designed masks over their noses and mouths from the minute they step foot in Beijing until they begin competing,"  as the New York Times reports today.

The air quality on a typical day in Beijing--one of the world's most polluted cities"is nearly five times higher than the World Health Organization's standard for safety. It's so bad that when the US Boxing Team came to China to compete last month, they had to  run "in the hotel hallways instead of on the streets because the air was "disgusting," according to their team manager.

Chinese officials insist that air quality will not be an issue when the Olympics begin on August 8th. They're working to curtail emissions from factories and cars over the next seven months in the hopes that they can turn Beijing's skies from brown to blue. Barring an environmental miracle, though, it's the athletes who'll be turning blue, after filling their lungs with all that bad Beijing air.

To find out how you can combat smog, go to cleanaircampaign.com.