Beijing covered in a cloud of pollution as athletes arrive for Olympic Games

The Associated Press
Published: July 28, 2008

BEIJING: The Chinese capital was shrouded in a thick, gray haze of pollution less than two weeks before the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games. One expert warned that drastic measures enacted to cut vehicle and factory emissions in the city were no guarantee skies would be clear during competitions.
The pollution that covered the city Sunday was among the worst seen in Beijing in the past month, despite traffic restrictions enacted a week ago that removed half of the city's vehicles from roadways.
Visibility was a half mile (less than 1 kilometer) in some places. During the opening ceremony of the Athletes' Village, the housing complex was invisible from the nearby main Olympic Green.
"No, it doesn't really look so good, but as I said, yesterday was better," said Gunilla Lindberg, an International Olympic Committee vice president from Sweden who is staying in the Athletes' Village. "The day I arrived, Tuesday, was awful."
The city's notoriously polluted air is one of the biggest question marks hanging over the games, which begin on Aug. 8. On Sunday, temperatures of about 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius), with 70 percent humidity and low winds, created a soupy mix of harmful chemicals, particulate matter and water vapor.

The Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau said the air was "unhealthy for sensitive groups."
The Chinese leadership consider the Beijing Olympics a matter of national prestige, and efforts to clean up the environment were part of its meticulous preparations for an event it hopes will dazzle the world.
Athletes have been trickling into Beijing were expected to begin arriving in large numbers this week — though some were headed to South Korea, Japan and other places to avoid Beijing's air for as long as possible. Some Olympic delegations, including the U.S. Olympic Committee, are making protective masks available to their athletes.
Du Shaozhong, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, blamed the thick haze on a combination of fog and light winds that were unable to blow away the pollution.
"Our job is to decrease the pollution as much as possible, but sometimes it is very common to have fog in Beijing at this time," Du said.
"The air quality in August will be good," he said.
Du was supported by Dr. Patrick Schamasch, an orthopedic surgeon who is the IOC's medical and scientific director. Schamasch said the IOC was monitoring Beijing's air. He said particulate matter on Sunday "was a little bit higher than what's expected but nothing dramatic."
Schamasch said conditions were "not worse" than in other cities that hosted the games, mentioning Los Angeles, Atlanta and Athens.
Beijing's drastic pollution controls include pulling half the city's 3.3 million vehicles off the roads, closing factories in the capital and a half-dozen surrounding provinces, and halting most construction.