Olympics-2008: China reveals emergency measures to improve air quality

Beijing (dpa) - China plans to take more vehicles off the roads and suspend operations in more than 200 factories if air quality does not improve, the government announced Thursday, as polluted air and grey skies continued to plague Beijing one week before the start of the 2008 Olympic Games.

If the air quality forecast is "extremely unfavourable" 48 hours in advance, authorities are to consider requesting Beijing, the neighboring Tianjin municipality as well as Hebei province to carry out emergency measures, the website of the Ministry of Environmental Protection said.

It was unclear whether monitoring would begin right away or 48 hours before the games are scheduled to begin on August 8.

In Beijing, vehicles whose license plate ends in the last digit of the date will be taken off roads on that day, which will effectively reduce the number of vehicles driven by another 10 percent, according to the emergency measures.

The city, since July 20, has already banned about one third of its 3.3 million vehicles from the roads by restricting drivers to driving only on alternate days, using an odd-even license plate number system.

Tianjin municipality, just east of Beijing, will also implement driving restrictions based on the odd-even license plate number system for entire days. Hebei province will do so from 7 am to 10 pm.

An additional 220 factories will be ordered to suspend or reduce production, including 105 chemical, furniture or construction materials factories in Beijing, 56 coal-fired power plants and machinery factories in Tianjin, and 61 pollution-emitting companies in Hebei province. Iron and steel companies in Hebei will also be ordered to significantly reduce production, the emergency measures said.

All construction sites in Beijing will be ordered to stop work, the website said.

With just about a week before the 2008 Olympics begin, the sky over China's capital appeared as grey and polluted as usual on Thursday.

But Beijing authorities insisted that measures carried out since the beginning of this month were working and grey skies did not necessarily mean poor air quality.

Kevin Gosper, chairman of the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) media commission, said he was not worried about the air pollution or the hot and humid Beijing summer climate.

Most of the competitions were taking place in air-conditioned arenas, he said. Moreover, many of the athletes competing outdoors were used to heat and humidity.

IOC President Jacques Rogge, however, had warned earlier that outdoor competitions in endurance sports would have to be postponed in case of high pollution levels.

The accuracy of China's claims about improving air quality is unclear as it does not use international standards for monitoring.

State media Monday quoted an environmental engineer saying authorities would implement an emergency plan which could ban 90 per cent of Beijing's 3.3 million vehicles from roads if air quality deteriorates during the Games.