Environmental and Public Health Risks from Air Pollution at the Beijing 2008 Olympics

China  has   made  enormous  strides  in   tackling  its  environmental  problems,  but considerable work remains to be done.  In an article on environment and public health published in the Winter 2007 edition of this journal, the question was raised whether the forces unleashed by China’s aggressive approach to economic growth since the late 1970’s --- two to three times the global average --- were too strong to be controlled by its environmental policies.  The same question remains relative to health risks for the Summer Olympics this August (2008):  “The main problem appears to be that well intentioned public health and environmental policies have not yet been realistically integrated into overall policies which emphatically promote economic growth.”1    In other words, theory and practice are in conflict and in practice, China has been promoting objectives that are diametrically opposed.  In August, 2007, China conducted a dry run of procedures to control air pollution by restricting car use.   The results were hard to interpret: official websites claimed success, while other observers and official data showed varied results of successful pollution reduction (see below). Overwhelmingly the major health as well as environmental concern for Beijing is air pollution and solutions have concentrated on the city itself, but surrounding areas are also problematic and have not been addressed as well.  This article will look at the health risks to athletes and the preparations that the Chinese government has been making to forestall widespread air pollution for the games.  One of the main reasons Beijing was chosen for the 2008 Olympics over Toronto and Paris was its proposals to have a “green Olympics.

Is China Ready for the Mantel of International Leadership?

In the past few years China has crossed two colossal crossroads.  It is now the world’s largest emitter of CO2 (2006/7)  and held the summer Olympics (2008).   And China shares a curious distinction with many other of the world’s “old” civilizations in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Central and Latin America.  By today’s standards, they are considered developing countries, a designation that appears singularly objectionable to the Chinese.  But a designation that appears to be a significant driving force in China’s overriding policy fostering economic growth.  This article is a follow-up to two earlier articles published in this journal: “Is China Subordinating Health and Environmental Concerns to Economic Growth?” (Winter 2007) and “Environmental and Public Health Risks from Air Pollution at the Beijing 2008 Olympics” (Summer 2008).  Both articles open the door to ask “Is China Ready for the Mantel of International Leadership?”

Is China Subordinating Health and Environmental Concerns to Economic Growth?

The popular press frequently portrays China in a negative light when it reports on environmental and health issues: widespread air and water pollution, mine accidents, and contaminated imports such as food and toys.  The image is hardly positive.  How much of this accurately reflects reality, and how much reflects a tendency of the popular press to accentuate the negative?  Is the image the same in professional journals and technical reports

Light and oxygen induced degradation limits the operational stability of methylammonium lead triiodide perovskite solar cells

Here, we demonstrate that light and oxygen-induced degradation is the main reason for the low operational stability of methylammonium lead triiodide (MeNH3PbI3) perovskite solar cells exposed to ambient conditions. When exposed to both light and dry air, unencapsulated MeNH3PbI3 solar cells rapidly degrade on timescales of minutes to a few hours. This rapid degradation is also observed under electrically bias driven current flow in the dark in the presence of O2. In contrast, significantly slower degradation is observed when the MeNH3PbI3 devices are exposed to moisture alone (e.g. 85% relative humidity in N2). We show that this light and oxygen induced degradation can be slowed down by the use of interlayers that are able to remove electrons from the perovskite film before they can react with oxygen to form O2−. These observations demonstrate that the operational stability of electronic and optoelectronic devices that exploit the electron transporting properties of MeNH3PbI3 will be critically dependent upon the use of suitable barrier layers and device configurations to mitigate the oxygen sensitivity of this remarkable material