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July 11, 2008 at 20:21:18

Mr. Rogge and Olympic Committee: Get the Marathon, Cycling, and Triathlon Out of Beijing's Deadly Air Pollution, Please!

by Stephen Fox     Page 3 of 4 page(s)

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One American blogger, Wendy Gold Rose wrote this on her blog today, and you can't help but love her blunt candor:

"Why would the IOC choose to host an event for the world's healthiest people knowing there's a strong likelihood the 10,000+ participating athletes will keel over and die after a few weeks of physical exertion? Well, maybe not die ... but they're definitely going to get sick from all the dust, smog and stench. I mean, come on! They are actually telling athletes NOT to come until the very last minute. They've even predicted that many of them will do worse than normal because of the smog martini they'll be forced to consume."
 

Human Rights without Frontiers International urged the IOC to press China on the issue as well as on its human rights record. "China's toxic air reflects its equally foul human rights record," said Reggie Littlejohn, a US lawyer advising the Brussels-based group. "It appears doubtful that Beijing will take the robust and decisive measures required to ensure safe air for the Olympics."

Not surprising that news of these matters is always very slow to reach very far into the Chinese Environmental Potemkin Village to become known to the Chinese people, with BBC transmission mysteriously "interrupted" when these stories came on the air.

Chinese government officials recently reported levels of pollutants like
sulphur dioxide dropped a lot last year and rank and file Beijing citizens and military have been conscripted into clearing the stinking algae bloom in the yachting and sailing areas near Qingdao.

The Beijing Organizing Committee concedes that China has failed to meet
pollution-busting targets from 2006, but says critics like me are just 
interested in creating "noise pollution" and that everything will be peachy
for athletes and the 3+ million Olympic visitors.

International Olympic Committee has with no enthusiasm quasi-supported
Beijing's efforts to combat pollution and in rather blase notations, said
that these Olympics will not be likely to bring new record in endurance
events. IOC's chief inspector, Hein Verbruggen, said Beijing "looked ready,"
and that IOC needs "to see how temporary measures in the city will make an impact on air quality".

China scrambled and did all it could to get the Olympics describing them as
the "Green Games" to show off combating pollution and encouraging
sustainable energy use, although Beijing remains choked with smog three
times the maximum allowed for by the World Health Organization. Chinese love to use that charming nonchalant excuse that they are a "developing nation," the location of factories making most of the world's industrial products, and too bad about pollution being a necessary by-product, because of that old Communist adage: The Ends Justify the Means.

United Nations Environmental Programme is worried above all about
particulate matter. One BBC reporter managed to get a detector past Customs Officials to test for particulate matter, finding that Beijing's air six out of seven days to meet WHO's air quality guidelines.
 
Her big "Enviromental Ace in the Hole," Beijing has an odd-even licence plate system starting on 20 July, which theoretically will result in half of the 3.3 million cars not being on the highway for entire time frame for the the Games.

Five coal-fired power plants are trying to cut emitted pollution; Beijing has forced the factories in nearby surrounding provinces stop work or cut production to clean the city's air; trees by the millions have been planted and dust clouds from building sites kept under control.

Exercise physiologists have long ago proven that endurance athletes breathe inhales 10 times as much air as office workers. Canada, Germany, France, Israel and the United States have training camps in Japan instead of Beijing before the Olympics.
 
Australian cyclist Stuart O'Grady has spoken out about "insane" health
risks faced by cyclists. he and his fellow-cyclists face. The governing body
for athletics in Australia said that it did not want its athletes marching
in the opening ceremony because of the pollution.

The Chinese are trying, at least, but saying that is merely an attempt at polite concession. As that  most astute Olympic journalist from Ireland Mr. Coonan points out: the Communist Party has single-party rule; it could grind the entire nation to a screeching halt in order to bring down pollutioln levels if it needs to, and it most certainly needs to do.

So what if China is spending $20 billion to greenify Beijing? That is parking meter change compared to the trade balance they have presently with the USA; they get to keep the improvements, and they aren't as dumb as the USA to pour $300 billion a year down the drain of Afghanistan and Iraq and have nothing to show for it but a bunch of suicide bombers, for all of the USA's efforts....

The Olympic athletes themselves are the ones who will pay that permanent deep-downmitochondrial price, despite all of those thousands of Beijing hard workers putting so much nice colorful paint on 31 Olympic venues.

The Olympics' criticism noise (like mine) is not going to go away. It will
increase more in this last 30 days. Ultimately, I believe, Beijing will
indeed fail because of air pollution. Mark my word: Beijing will be
remembered as the Lethal Air Olympics in the minds of the masses and anyone who watches them on television in August 2008.

However, in the hearts of the families of the athletes who will most certainly die, it will be the locus for unspeakable tragedies, all of which could be avoided if Rogge and the Organizing Committee were take their responsibilities seriously and move the most endurance-oriented events entirely out of Beijing.

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In 1980, Stephen Fox founded New Millennium Fine Art, a Santa Fe gallery specializing in Native American and Landscape, and is very active in New Mexico Legislative consumer protection politics, trying above to get the FDA to rescind its approval for the neurotoxic and carcinogenic artificial sweetener, Aspartame. [http://www.prlog.org/10070694] In a strictly legislative context, his most important writing has been for the Hawaii Senate: http://www.prlog.org/10056715-hawaii-senate In his capacity as Contributing Editor of the Santa Fe Sun News, Fox recently interviewed Mikhail Gorbachev: http://www.prlog.org/10064349-mikhail-gorbachev He has been adamant and resourceful about exposing the charlatans of the sometimes-organic food movement. Take the time to read this press release concerning California Attorney General Jerry Brown's suits against Whole Foods, Avalon, and others, for either knowingly or negligently adding a deadly carcinogen to their body care products and soap, as in Whole Foods 365 Label products: http://www.prlog.org/10079593 He cordially invites all Op Ed News readers to visit New Mexico in 2008!

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In 1980, Stephen Fox founded New Millennium Fine Art, a Santa Fe gallery specializing in Native American and Landscape, and is very active in New Mexico Legislative consumer protection politics, trying above to get the FDA to rescind its approval for the neurotoxic and carcinogenic artificial sweetener, Aspartame. [http://www.prlog.org/10070694]

In a strictly legislative context, his most important writing has been for the Hawaii Senate: http://www.prlog.org/10056715-hawaii-senate ...

to see more of bio, click on member name

Stephen FoxIn 1980, Stephen Fox founded New Millennium Fine Art, a Santa Fe gallery specializing in Native American and Landscape, and is very active in New Mexico Legislative consumer protection politics, trying above to get the FDA to rescind its approval for the neurotoxic and carcinogenic artificial sweetener, Aspartame. [http://www.prlog.org/10070694]

In a strictly legislative context, his most important writing has been for the Hawaii Senate: http://www.prlog.org/10056715-hawaii-senate ...

to see more of bio, click on member name

Could Beijing's Polluted Air Sicken Olympic Spectators?

Could Beijing’s Polluted Air Sicken Olympic Spectators?

BeijingThe Chinese government has been scrambling to cut down on air pollution before the world’s best athletes compete in the Olympics next month; they’ve closed down factories near Beijing and allowed people to drive their cars only every other day.

But according to researchers from Northwestern University, athletes aren’t the only ones who need to be wary of dirty air. Even spectators, they say, could suffer serious health problems from traveling to China for the games.


According to Dr. Gokhan Mutlu, people with cardiovascular disease, or risk factors like obesity, diabetes, or high cholesterol, could be at risk for a heart attack or stroke from spending too much time in the Beijing air. The microscopic particles in polluted air, like those from a coal plant or diesel truck, can make blood thicker and sticky, he says.

Even if you have a healthy visit to China, you’re not off the hook—Mutlu says the same pollutant particles can cause blood clots, especially if you spend too much time sitting down on one of those marathon flights back to the States.

So what’s a globe-trotting sports fan to do? Men over 40 should take aspirin, the researchers say, and everyone would do themselves a favor by staying inside during rush hour, when cars in traffic jams are spewing forth exhaust. And what about that lengthy flight home? Make sure you get up occasionally and walk around. That’s probably good for you no matter where you’re flying to or from.

by Stephen Fox (79 articles, 2 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 443 comments) on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 8:46:42 PM
 

 

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