Beijing's Pollution a Contentious Foe for Olympic Athletes

[saltwn]

Why can't we set the same standards for air quality in places we do business?
Or just say no.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Now, another in our series of stories about the Olympics and China's moment on the world stage. Tonight, Beijing's problems with air pollution.

After several days of clearer skies, a thick haze covered the city today, just four days before the opening ceremonies. Health correspondent Betty Ann Bowser has our story. The Health Unit is a partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

BETTY ANN BOWSER, NewsHour Correspondent: Smog has been a fact of life in Beijing for years. It's so bad on some days that locals refer to it as "the fog."

But even after the Chinese government spent $17 billion trying to clean it, and just days away from opening ceremonies, this is what the sky looks like much of the time. Beijing's Pollution a Contentious Foe for Olympic Athletes | Online NewsHour | August 4, 2008 | PBS

An excerpt from a blog I read yesterday:

I was phoned yesterday by a recruiter for a university in China looking for English teachers. One of my most important questions to the rep was, "What's the air quality like in the city where this university is?" Last time I spent a year in China, I spent literally every other week suffering from a respiratory illness because of China's unbelievably, intense pollution. Whenever the doctors examined my throat they exclaimed that I had extremely purple and blue bruises all over and that I should take it easy! I'm a musician and my main instrument is my voice. Memory Stones

[cnredd]

I'd like to remind everyone that the Kyoto Treaty EXEMPTED China (and India) from the same pollution standards demanded of the United States...

And then they bitch when we don't sign it...