Russell Beighton.

I find it amazing that it takes an outsider, such as he amarican enviromental agency to pass a sever warning to the people of Beijing, were are the severe warnings on local tv and radio, is this taken as a light hearted matter here.
People should have been given the right to take time away from work or there daily schedeule to stay in doors and not face the killer fog, without getting punished from there place of work.
How bad does it have to get before it is taken seriously, if out side sources are concerned why is this concern not being shown from the goverment here.
As my dear wife often says to me living here is like living on the moon.
By this she means,nothing is spoken about its all hush hush.
I think its time the silence was broken and people of this city were warned to the dangers that surrounds them.
The future of this developing city may seem very colourful and full of optimism, but nature will not stand for constant poisoning that it is being subjected to, its just a matter of time.
One more point before i depart,todays reports are not a good advertisment to the world in terms of visitng this city,and im sure this day will be kept in the minds of people around the world when it comes to olympics time.
Will they want to leave the clean air of there home land's to sit and watch someone running around a track," possibly with a mask on" i dont think so.
So all i can say is GOOD LUCK WITH THE OLYMPICS YOU WILL NEED IT.
Ps. my wife as also just been told the infection in her throat and the lumps on her tongue, which she has been suffering from for one week has been caused by the past days of smog,BRILLIANT.

Kyle

Honestly I don't think Beijingers generally give much attention to the air they're breathing. Ask anyone and they'll complain about housing prices and traffic. It's like the filthy stairs and elevators that no one bothers to clean, it's a collective retardation in the society. There's a part of me that secretly wishes a day like this would happen during the Olympics - sorry Beijing gov't but would losing face be the only way to recoup part of my lungs?

Beijing Student

Yea, I'm getting real worried about my health. I've never had allergies in my life, and I've got a sinus infection so bad that two doctors recommend operation.

Even more troubling, I had the first nose-bleed of my entire life on the 27th. This can't be good, not one little bit.

now or never

my son has been in beijing for almost a year and i have never worried so much about his health before. Always telling me how sick he was and never the proper medical care available or doctors who seem to know anything so the only thing you can put it down to is the poison in the air of beijing
Westerners get out while you can and let them rot if they don't have the common sense to give a sh*t about life, themselves or their country

2 years in beijing

What is said here is all true. Maybe many of you have lived here for years and know what the city has faced for pollution. The shock of coming to the city for the first time is great. That will really leave a bad impression on foreigners.

There was, though, an article published in That's Beijing in the last year of an American scientist that studied health effects of living in such conditions. For the 3-5 year resident living in Beijing, the effects of pollution on long term health were very small. For long term residents and older people it was more serious.

These are no excuses for not cleaning up the air, but how different is this level of pollution from the pollution of early 20th century industrial America or England? And how much of America's cheap 'made in China products' are the cause of this pollution?

And how many of the IOC really believed such an industrial country could alter the course of it's entire climate system to accomodate 2 weeks of fresh air? I really don't see it happening. . .