Cough, cough: It Couldn't Get Any Worse (but the scary thing is, it could)

421 was not, in fact, the height of Beijing's pollution the other day. That was the official Chinese Environmental Protection Agency reading in Beijing up to 6 pm. But the following day, the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau reported that from noon Thursday to noon Friday, almost all of the monitors within the city limits of Beijing had readings of 500. Since the charts top out at 500, it is impossible to say how bad the pollution really was.

Follow this link to see the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau readings for Thur-Fri. It's in Chinese, but each line is a different district of Beijing, so all you need to see is how many readings are above 400 and 500 to understand. Also, it includes all of Beijing's surrounding counties, where the pollution indexes are generally much lower. www.bjepb.gov

At the bottom of this post, I have copied an AFP article that includes quotes from Beijing environmental and Olympics officials, but I also highly recommend reading this Dec. 29 longer, in-depth New York Times article by Jim Yardley that accurately describes both the Olympic and long-term aspects of Beijing's pollution problem.

If you don't read the NYT article - and again, I think you should - this quote the author got from a factor worker assessing Beijing's efforts to ensure clean air for the Olympics tells a large part of the story, and the first photo in the article, also pasted below, is chilling.

“Yes, I heard about it,” said an engineer at one factory that may temporarily be shut down. He refused to identify himself because he was criticizing government policy. “It is like you invite some guests to your home, and hide all your children underneath the bed to make the house look nicer. If all the polluting factories are shut down for the Olympics, there will be a major pollution outbreak afterward when all the factories restart, right?”

Picture of Tiananmen Square on Thursday, from the NYT article (Oded Bality/AP):


The AFP article is copied below. Don't miss the last line.

Beijing air pollution 'as bad as it can get,' official says

BEIJING (AFP) — Beijingers were warned to stay indoors on Thursday as pollution levels across the capital hit the top of the scale, despite repeated assurances by the government that air quality was improving.

"This is as bad as it can get," a spokeswoman for the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau told AFP.

"Level five is the worst level of air pollution. This is as bad as it has been all year."

According to the bureau's website, 15 out of the 16 pollution monitoring stations in urban Beijing registered a "five" for air quality rating.

The main pollutant was suspended particulate matter, which is usually attributed to coal burning and automotive exhaust.

"Old people and young children should reduce outdoor activities and protect their health," the spokeswoman said.

The Beijing Evening News warned residents not to do their morning exercises on Friday as pollution levels were likely to linger over the capital until a cold front moved in and blew some of the bad air away later in the day.

A lack of wind in the capital over recent days has led to a heavy cover of smog trapping in the pollutants, the paper said.

By nightfall, the pollution was still horrendously thick.

In the run up to the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing has vowed to clean up its air and this year set a goal of 245 "blue sky days," or days with only light pollution.

As of Thursday, the city needed one more day to reach the annual goal, the bureau said. But official "blue sky days" are often hazy affairs with heavy pollution.

Beijing's air quality is routinely rated among the worst in the world by international agencies such as the United Nations and the World Bank, with rampant coal burning, regular dust storms and a growing number of cars cited as the main reasons.

The head of the government's information office, Cai Wu, told reporters on Thursday that Beijing's environment was improving and they should have "full confidence" that the Olympics would be pollution free.