CHINA: Environment watchdog hails cleaner air during car restrictions
- 00:00:36
- ITN Source
CHINA: Environment watchdog hails cleaner air during car restrictions
Air pollution increased in Beijing on Tuesday (August 21), a day after an Olympic pollution prevention test took over a million cars off the roads, environmental officials said, indicating the measure works. To see if the city's poor quality air could be improved at least temporarily during next August's Games, Beijing ordered 1.3 million cars off the roads by alternately banning odd and even number plates from Friday to Monday. "Compared with August 16, which was the day before the traffic restriction, the daily intensity of car-related pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and Inhalable Particulate Matter have decreased by 15% to 20%," Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau (BEPB) deputy chief Du Shaozhong told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday. Official air quality reports over the four days of car restrictions came in at Grade 2 on 1-5 scale. This worsened to Grade 3 by midday on Tuesday, the day after the test finished. International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge said at the one year countdown to the 2008 Beijing Games earlier this month that some endurance sports like cycling might have to be postponed if air quality was not improved. Although the results from the Chinese officials suggest the positive outcome of traffic control, the hazy sky for the past four days seem to suggest that there is more to be done. Du said a blue sky had nothing to do with pollution. "A blue sky doesn't necessarily mean it's not polluted, while an overcast sky doesn't mean it is polluted. People say blue sky only because they feel that the sky is blue. But we need to estimate the test according to scientific data," he said. Beijing's car tally hit the 3 million mark in May and more than 1,000 more are registered every day, snarling up the roads and pumping nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and particulate matter into the air. Beijing is closing down the worst-polluting factories and switching thousands of homes from coal to gas use but air quality remains the biggest concern for Olympic organisers.
ITN Source | August 21, 2007
