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China Steps Up Efforts to Improve Air Quality, Athletes Worry about Foul Air

A thick soup of eye-stinging smog hangs over Beijing's Olympic Stadium, without

any blue sky in sight. Chinese doctor Pan Xiaochuan said athletes may experience a

range of symptoms, from coughing and shortness of breath, to asthma attacks and

serious heart problems.

With six months to go before the Olympic Games, Beijing's air pollution on most days

is off the charts, and in August, high humidity only exacerbates the problem.

China 's growing passion for cars, and its citywide construction boom, are largely to

blame. There are 1,000 new vehicles in the capital every day. Today, Chinese media

reported that Beijing will close more than 150 gas stations and oil depots, by the end

of May, to decrease air pollution.

In three months, the city also plans to shut down city construction sites. Government

will close several "coal-fired power plants, as well as steel mills and cement plants,

to cut emissions of the acid rain-causing pollutant."

"It's going to be very taxing in the endurance events, and breathing in that pollution is

going to be hard on everyone's lungs," Kastor said.

Olympic team has been to Beijing three times in the last two years, to measure

pollution levels. They have also visited the start of the marathon route in Tiananmen

Square. Each time, they told ABC News that the readings were "awful."