The Barometer Online

Issue date: 7/8/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Oregon State University Oregon State associate professor Staci Simonich and Peking University graduate student Wentao Wang sampled particulate matter from a university building in Beijing during the 2008 Olympics.

Post-Olympic research has shown that the presence of particulate matter (PM) in the air over Beijing exceeded World Health Organization Standards 12 percent of the time during the Olympics, which means that the air quality was worse than previous Olympics in Athens, Sydney and Atlanta.
The thick, persistent smog troubled Chinese officials as they worked to meet the PM standards they agreed to when they made their bid for the Olympics.
"I had heard of the pollution issues that were plaguing Beijing," said Andrew Burton, a photographer at the Olympics and former Oregon State University student. "But even I was surprised at the thickness and frequency on the smog that would descend on the city on any given day."
Burton described it as a classic London fog: thick, heavy, enveloping stuff with a yellow-ish tinge.
The most prevalent PM in Beijing came from automobile emissions as well as from the numerous factories surrounding the city, which are powered by fossil fuels.
In an effort to reduce PM in the air during the Olympics, the Chinese government issued restrictions, which removed hundreds of thousands of cars from the streets of Beijing and temporarily shut down much of the manufacturing sector.
"I believe that using the Olympic Games as an important opportunity or accelerator for promoting improvements in our environment conforms to the Olympic spirit, which is to promote economic, social, and environmental improvements in the Olympic Games' host countries or cities," said Du Shaozhong, deputy director and spokesperson of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, in the Chinese Law and Government Journal.
Despite the measures enacted by the Chinese government, air quality in Beijing remained poor leading up to the Olympics due to pollution blowing in from regions to the south of the capital city. The skies of Beijing eventually cleared up during the games due to some favorably-timed rain and winds which blew in from the north, rather than south.

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