Sucking Air In China

The Beijing Olympics is only fifteen months away, and at the same time China is
wallowing in the toxic by-products of its lightning economic expansion, prompting fears for athletes and tourists who will travel there, as well as the Chinese population. Chronic water and air pollution caused by industrial toxins and pesticides mean cancer has risen to be China's leading killer, accounting for nearly a quarter of all deaths, according to recent reports.

At the same time, it was revealed that 40 of China's top athletes fell ill because of foul air-conditioning in the country's sports headquarters in January and have been forced to withdraw from competition. Filthy air-conditioning systems have been blamed for outbreaks of disease in hotels and apartment blocks in the capital.

Chinese authorities have promised to crack down on air-conditioning in Olympic hotels and sporting venues after a recent investigation by China's national broadcaster CCTV. It found many air-conditioning systems were rarely cleaned because it was cheaper to risk being inspected and paying the paltry fine, just 800 yuan ($130) in Shanghai, than spend tens of thousands of yuan maintaining the systems.

In one case, two tons of waste, including dead rats and takeout food left by construction workers, was collected when the ventilation system of a 19-story Beijing office building was cleaned recently for the first time since it was built in the early 1990s.

Many of the IOC’s major Olympic organizations either refuse to discuss the issue or deny that there is any concern at all. With large amounts of private and government funding, the major teams typically bring in their own bottled water and private supplies of food.