Picture: This is a picture of the olympic stadium from the 2008 summer olympics in Bejing, China.
Article Summary: Around the time of the 2008 summer olympics, researchers noticed a change in the air quality surrounding Bejing. They wondered if the air quality could affect any health problems with athletes. The Chinese government agreed that during the games, they would limit the use of motor vehicles. As soon as the games were over, the levels of pollution went back up. Before the games started, the researchers took measurements from 125 residents from Bejing. They found that rising air pollution levels rose the normally healthy citizens' blood pressure and blood- clotting factors. Scientist aren't very sure of which pollutants are causing the health problems because pretty much all of the pollutants they were measuring went back up after the games were over. They actually think that it might be a mix of several different pollutants.
Reflection: I really never thought that there could be any relation between the olympics and the air quality. This article was pretty surprising. I really hope they can find out which pollutant or mixture of pollutants is causing the health problems like high blood pressure and blood- clotting factors. I wonder if during the summer olympics this year they will also do research like this. It would be petty interesting to see if the same kind of results for air pollution and health problems come back.
Questions:
1. What else do you think the Chinese government could do to try and lower the air pollution?
2. Could this happen during the summer olympics this year?
3. How else do you think they could test to find out what pollutants are the cause of the health problems?
I agree with Alex in that they should look for what is causing the blood pressure to go up and cause the blood clotting in the veins. The fact that the Chinese government was able to reduce the amount of pollution before the Beijing Olympics shows that the Chinese government actually has the capability in reducing the amount of pollution in the air. If they were to understand that the profit they make currently in the sacrifisce of the people is really going to affect the future generation and quite possibly affect the health of everyone and thing on the face of earth. This article relates with the one that Haley put and I still think that the Chinese government should understand the disaster that they are creating. I also remember reading about Chinese street food and how they were disgustingly manufactured. I think that also goes along with how China is not doing much to care for their citizen's health.
ReplyDeleteAnswer to question 2:
I think London Olympic could cause some health issues in athletes as there were articles that mentioned about how London is possibly the dirtiest place in Europe or that it may have lead some people to death. But, we have to also regard how China is much more polluted than any other place on Earth so, the damaged that China might have caused to the Atheletes is probably much dangerous than what London could cause.
Reaction:
ReplyDeleteWow!!! I did not know that the Olympics would encourage people to pollute less. I wonder if the people in London are polluting less now because the games will be held soon. Some people say that people will pollute less if they have reason to. Keeping the environment safe is a good reason to pollute less but people seem to be more motivated to pollute less for the Olympics rather than for our environment The health issues are very mysterious but at least they know the source of them. I remember seeing Olympics in 2008 and am really excited to see the games this year!!!!
Expansion:
1.)Should the U.S.A and other big countries regulate the amount of pollution we create or should that responsibility be up to the individuals alone to decide?
2.Say the U.S.A does regulate the amount of time people are a using their cars on a daily basis, will this help the environment or cause chaos because people will become angry that they are somewhat being con trolled? Which do you think will happen and why?
3.) Other than how much a person pollutes the air using a car or motorcycle, what other ways could the U.S. A and other countries regulate the amount of pollution the people make? List more than one way and explain how you will be able to monitor it.
Reflection:
ReplyDeleteGernwoo's right, this does connect to the article i recently posted! After reading the two articles on the pollution in China, one could easily assume that the country does not feel concern towards the health hazards of pollution. I think it's so weird that the olympics caused the spike in air pollution...was it only the cars that caysed it? I feel that there would have to be more than that to cause the rise, since millions of cars in China would be on the roads nonetheless. When I saw Alex's photo I figured the fireworks was causing the pollution, actually. I thought it was kind of funny, too, because I was just at Horsham Day and watched some fireworks there. Me and my friends were wondering what Miss DeLuca thought of all the fireworks, and wondered if she was concerned about the pollution. Going back to the article, I'm hoping that China's people will use the evidence like those in this article and mine to get their home more environmentally-friendly.
Expansion-Questions:
1) Are there spikes in the pollution amounts in the air for certain occasions in the US, like holidays or special events? What pollutants and sources did these events bring up?
2) Is China doing anything currently to fix their problems with pollution and the safety of its peopl?
3) How were the scientists in Beijing able to detect a rise in air pollution in the first place? Is this technology used for studying global warming or the depleting ozone layers?