Beijing’s Toxic Air

James Fallows of The Atlantic has a post up about Beijing’s air quality and the Olympics that is making the rounds in the blogosphere.  It has some scary photos of the near-toxic levels of air pollution that the citizens of Beijing have to contend with. 

Mr. Fallows asks: “To the obvious question — how could you possibly have a major athletic competition in conditions like these??”  Chinese officials have promised to clean up the air in the coming year so althetes won’t risk destroying their lungs (apparently it’s not so bad if this happens to ordinary Chinese).  There are limits to what even the most draconian methods can accomplish in a situation like this, so we shall see how successful they are. 

If we were athletes preparing for the Beijing Olympics, we would be very concerned… and upset at the International Olympics Committee (IOC) for making us compete in such conditions.

See: http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/07/now_377_days_to_the_olympics.php