Beijing China Weather

At last summer's Olympics, Beijing came out on top in the medal count and on the balance sheets. But as the city's air pollution again pushes dangerous levels, two new reports point out that pollution during the Games was concealed by poor measurements and mitigated more by weather than by the government's massive interventions.

While pollution levels appeared to reach record lows for Beijing, the Olympic air was actually 3.5 times worse than that of recent Olympic cities like Athens, Atlanta and Sydney, and often exceeded what the World Health Organization considers safe.

One report, by Steve Andrews and published by the Wilson Center, reiterates conclusions that Andrews made and we reported last year: that China is misinforming the public by massaging its pollution numbers to look lower than they are and not including crucial, finer pollutants in its calculations, PM 2.5 and ozone.

Beijing and other Chinese cities rely on an air pollution index (API) in which a score of 100 or lower indicates air quality as 'good.' By that measurement, all 17 days of Olympic events in Beijing were deemed satisfactory, or "blue sky" days. Overall, the city counted a record high of 274 good air days in 2008.

Beijing China Weather
Beijing China Weather
Beijing China WeatherNevertheless, during the Olympics, as another study by researchers from Oregon State University and Peking University found, coarser particulate matter, PM 10 (particles with a diameter of 10 micrometers or less, or one-seventh the width of a human hair), exceeded levels that the WHO considers safe about 81 percent of the time.

Meanwhile, fine particle pollution (PM 2.5) exceeded WHO guidelines 100 percent of the time.

Beijing's Olympic pollution exceeded an average day in Los Angeles by two to four times, and was higher than pollution levels during previous Olympics in Athens, Atlanta, and Sydney.

The American-Chinese study also determined that China's drastic air clean-up, part of a $20 billion "greening" effort that included banning half the city's 3.3 million vehicles, halting most construction and closing dozens of factories, had less of an effect on pollution than did weather during August.

Meteorological conditions, such as rainfall and strong winds from the north and northwest, accounted for 40% of the variation in concentrations of PM 10, while pollution control measures accounted for only 16 percent, according to the study.

But meterological conditions were not simply an act of god (this is, after all, officially a secular country). No doubt recognizing the importance of the weather in clearing the air, Beijing officials even called in the cloud-seeding guns to force rain on some days.
Beijing China Weather
Beijing China Weather
Beijing China Weather
Beijing China WeatherAndrews study indicates that the use of API and "Blue Sky" day measurements has kept the pressure on officials across China to push data from just above the 100 mark to just under. Thus, a polluted day becomes a "blue sky" day.

Andrews also caught Beijing moving its air sampling stations to less-trafficked areas to create the appearance of less pollution.

The report also points out that cities managed to make the grade because standards for NO2 were loosened in 2000. Though Beijing and Guangzhou made the grade in 2006, if 1996 standards had been used, they would have exceeded the annual average NO2 standard by 65 percent and 67 percent, respectively.

The Good News
It's tempting to see China's Olympic pollution efforts as further confirmation of Beijing's tendency to cover up the facts.

But if there is silver lining of China's massive Olympic pollution experiment, it's the way it has drawn more attention than ever to the country's toxic air, and demonstrated that even drastic temporary measures can't compensate for long-term, sustainable improvements in pollution monitoring and reduction.

Earlier this month, environmental officials indicated that ozone and PM 2.5 would be incorporated into an updated monitoring regime next year, state media reported. From Jian Wang, an official with the environment ministry's pollution-prevention division, we have this breath of fresh air: