01.27.08
Posted in Beijing, Environment, Media/Internet, Olympics, USA at 22:38 by Mul
The New York Times is reporting that the U.S. Olympic team is considering recommending that its athletes wear a mask in Beijing when not competing. A U.S. Olympic team scientist:
is urging all the athletes to wear specially designed masks over their noses and mouths from the minute they step foot in Beijing until they begin competing.
Having recently acquired the equivalent of “coal miner’s lung” within a day of arriving in Beijing, I have more than a little sympathy for precautions to combat Beijing’s air pollution. I don’t think anyone credible truly believes the pollution problem will be solved before August 2008. Sure, Beijing authorities plan to cut traffic in half during the games. That is during the Olympics, by the way, not before. I’m no air pollution expert, but wouldn’t it make sense to cut down on traffic prior to the games to decrease the level of air pollution?
I think the scariest event, at least for the athletes, will be the marathon. The marathon world record holder, Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, is threatening to pull out of the event, citing Beijing’s air pollution as the reason. Will the air pollution ruin the Olympics? Maybe not, but that remains an open question. Will it overshadow the games? Likely.
Permalink
12.17.07
Posted in Environment, Industry, The Second Tier, Wuhan at 19:47 by Nator
Interesting news from Reuters:
A cluster of cities in central China has been designated the country’s latest experimental zone, this one for energy saving and environmentally friendly programmes, state media reported on Monday.
The Hunan cities of Changsha, Zhuzhou and Xiangtan — late chairman Mao Zedong’s hometown — as well as the Hubei capital of Wuhan, will be targeted to lead China’s drive to make its breakneck economic growth more environmentally sustainable. Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
12.07.07
Posted in Environment, Health, Industry, Media/Internet at 03:00 by Mul
The reputation of Chinese food and product safety has experienced a slight setback the past several months. There have been well-publicized cases of exports involving tainted seafood, lead paint- and GHB-coated toys and even the mysterious death of a Korean diplomat in Beijing linked to unsafe food. At first, the Chinese government definatly insisted that food and product safety issues are isolated, exaggerated by the paranoid and biased international media or even trumped up due to trade protectionism.
Well, it turns out there may have been something to the international outcry over product safety. The New York Times (via Xinhua) reports today that the government announced it demolished 2,800 rural food facilities, closed down 47,000 illegal food factories and shut down over 300 drug and medical equipment factories. Not so isolated, by my measure.
According to the Times article, new legislation is in the works that will inflict the death penalty on those responsible for products that harm or kill large numbers of people. Presumably, this means the executives of companies that knowingly sell shoddy products. They did not need to wait for the new legislation to punish Cao Wenzhuang, the former head of the pharmaceutical registration department of the State Food and Drug Administration. He was sentenced to death in July for accepting bribes from drug companies for fast-tracking approval of their drugs.
Permalink
Next entries »