If you were planning to stay in Beijing a bit longer
The IOC medical official says Beijing is meeting the WHO air quality standards “in many aspects“, and goes on:
“I am sure and confident that the air quality will not pose any major problem to the athletes and visitors…The WHO standards are not intended for temporary visitors… They are for permanent residents”
So all you athletes, officials, visitors, you don’t have to worry, the air will be good enough for you. And the permanent residents, well, sorry, that’s not the responsibility of the IOC. Thank you IOC for your contribution to China.
In fact i don’t really care what the air quality will be like in the next few weeks; i rather worry about the next few years, and my only hope is that the authorities will be somehow convinced/pressured to give a higher priority to improving air quality. Stop subsidizing petrol, even if it doubles the price at the pump. Enforce dust filters on industrial installations across the country. Preventing higher inflation is not a long-term vision.
Some US athletes got a bit confused getting a scolding from USOC officials because they stepped off the plane wearing face masks, which they had been given a while ago by the USOC itself… Welcome to the circus.
Vance has some interesting comparisons with previous Olympic cities:
- Los Angeles 1984: although no precise data is available, based on several reasonable assumptions he concludes Beijing’s average official PM10 since 20 July has been 60% higher than the average during the LA games (111 vs 68 micrograms/m3)
- Atlanta 1996: average PM10 during the Atlanta games was 31 micrograms/m3; our average in Beijing since 20 July is 250% higher. The worst day in Atlanta had 51 micrograms/m3, the official PM10 for 6 Aug is 120 micrograms/m3 (API of 85).
The case is closed, let’s enjoy the games and hope we’ll continue to see real improvement in the air quality when the circus leaves town, we need it.
August 7th, 2008 at 7:50 am
Tom, your efforts will not be in vain. We support you, all Chinese people are behind you.
We recognize your effort to bring clean air to us.
I will refer this blog to every single of my friends.
Cheers,
Mengsu
August 8th, 2008 at 3:57 am
I read through your entries. It is imformative. However, I am confused with one thing - where did you get the translation of API? It seems for me API 0-50 is referred to as good, and 50-100 as OK according to the wording in MEP. they are the same as the US and I guess they have borrowed them.