When good is bad and fairly good is really bad
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/08/07/art.china.pollution.jpg]
John Vause
CNN Correspondent
Chinese is a very difficult language to learn, even when it’s in English. Often when officials here have said the air is excellent and all I can see is smog, I've been left scratching my head trying to work out how that could be. So, recently I’ve been emailing a lot with Dr. George D. Thurston, Professor of Environmental Medicine NYU School of Medicine. He spends a lot of time trying to work out what the Chinese statistics mean when it comes to air quality.
So here’s what he tells me:
Excellent (China) = Good to Moderate (U.S.)
Excellent to Good (China) = Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (U.S.)
Good to Slightly Polluted (China) = Unhealthy (U.S.)
Slightly Polluted to Lightly Polluted (China) = Very Unhealthy (U.S.)
So during these Olympics, when you hear a Chinese official say the air is Good to slightly polluted, you’ll know that if you were in the US, that would be considered unhealthy.
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Filed under: Global 360° • John Vause • Olympics |
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So let me see if I have this correct; after much consultation with Dr. Thurston of NYU School of Medicine and after trying to determine a Chinese correlation to an American correlation, the following has been determined:
Slightly Polluted to Lightly Polluted (China)=Very Unhealthy (US): George W. Bush.
Good to Slightly Polluted (China)=Unhealthy (US): Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Alan Greenspan, John McCain.
Excellent to Good (China)=Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (US): Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Wall Street.
Excellent (China)=Good to Moderate (US): I'll have to get back to you on this one; I'm stumped.
So I suppose this means we will be seeing a lot of Americans wearing face masks during the games eh?
Jolene, St. Joseph, MI
My nephew has returned to Bejing to attend Bejing Univ on exchange and his Chinese is excellent!
John,
Did the Professor say why the Chinese measurements were so much different (not as stringent) than ours? I hope the air quality stays at least in the excellent range for the athletes sake.
Annie Kate
Birmingham AL
Well, "On a clear day you can see forever." I guess China and the USA have a different view of forever?
Lorie Ann, Buellton, Calif.
From the way it looks I don't think China's air will ever be excellent or any where near that! Honestly I doubt it'd pass as slightly polluted. I'd be afraid to breathe it!
Cindy...Ga.