Beijing Olympics' Air Pollution: Worse Than L.A.

Air pollution at the Beijing Olympics last summer was bad on several counts, and the Chinese hid the extent of it, new research suggests. 

Particulate pollution levels were about two to four times higher than that of Los Angeles on an average day, according to research in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. And these air pollution levels constantly exceeded those considered excessive by the World Health Organization, and were about 30 percent higher than has been reported by Chinese environmental experts, said researcher Staci Simonich, an Oregon State University associate professor of environmental and molecular toxicology.

The weather helped reduce the severity of the problem, via a lot with wind shifts and evening rains, more even than government attempts to temporarily shut down auto traffic and slow polluting industries during and before the games, said Simonich, who worked on the study with researchers at Peking University.

The scientists determined that particulate matter air pollution in the Beijing Olympics were about double the levels of recent games in Athens, Greece; triple those of Atlanta, Ga.; and 3.5 times higher than the games in Sydney, Australia.

"The athletes and visitors were only exposed for a very short time," Simonich said. "Millions of other people there face this air quality problem their entire lives. It was unlike anything I've ever seen – you could look directly at the sun and not have a problem, due to the thickness of the haze."

Here in the United States, about one third of schools are within an air pollution danger zone near major highways and the pollutants that stream from cars and trucks, a 2008 study found.