Smog in Beijing five times over safety limit as Olympics nears

Flora Bagenal, Timesonline.co.uk Pollution around the Olympic stadium in Beijing could be five times worse than levels deemed safe by the World Health Organisation.

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Chinese officials admit they can no longer guarantee that the air quality will match international standards as pollution tests by The Sunday Times revealed the full extent of the challenge facing British athletes. With just five weeks to go before the start of the Beijing Games, tests conducted outside the national stadium — known as the Bird’s Nest — and at Tiananmen Square, the starting point of the marathon, showed the air is thick with particulate pollution. Even the Chinese government’s official air pollution index — which monitors a range of pollutants, including carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide — is running at double the level recommended by the WHO. More...