Highlights:
– Beijing officials recently completed a four month campaign to improve the quality of Chinese food products ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics
– A first aid brochure will be available in nine languages to provide fast medical assistance during the Olympics
– Measures to improve food and water safety ahead of the Olympics will likely cause long-term detrimental effects for Chinese citizens living outside the city
After massive recalls during the summer of 2007, Chinese officials have undertaken extensive steps to ensure quality in their products, especially food, during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Thorough tracking systems and quarantine measures have been set up in advance of the summer games, to prevent any potential health risks.
However, many of these measures will negatively impact a large portion of Chinese citizens who live outside of Beijing and continue to combat problems such as unsafe food and dwindling water supplies. As such, long-term adverse consequences are likely to endure in China for the short-term gains of producing a successful Olympic games.
Food Safety
On January 14, 2008, officials at the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine reported that a four-month campaign to improve the quality of Chinese products had been successful. The campaign, beginning in August 2007, certified 98,000 food manufacturers and 120,000 small food businesses. Additionally, over 120 tons of substandard food products were either destroyed or removed from shelves as part of the quality control measures.
A management system, set up to trace animal products, will begin operating in Beijing in February 2008. A monitoring station, receiving signals from up to 1,000 facilities at once, will show real-time footage of food-related factories.
The system is a step taken to reassure the expected half million visitors during the Olympics, after a 2007 outbreak of the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, commonly known as blue-ear pig disease. The disease impacted an estimated 294 Chinese counties and nearly 300,000 pigs, eventually hurting the economy in a country where pork is the most widely eaten meat.
Chinese officials also reported that all food at the Olympics will be produced from the accredited institutions that previously qualified for market access and all of their products will have a safe quality label. Nevertheless, the reports did not say what requirements accredited institutions must meet to sell their food to Olympic venues.
Medical Assistance
Olympic athletes and spectators who do not speak Chinese will be issued a Chinese-English first aid brochure to assist them in the event of a medical emergency. The brochure translates medical expressions on everything from allergies to diarrhea and fever. A map of Beijing hospitals and first aid centers is also included in the brochure.
The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) will also provide a translation of the brochure in seven additional languages, amid fears that visitors will encounter difficulties if they do not speak Mandarin Chinese. Numerous campaigns have been launched in an effort to motivate Chinese students to learn English ahead of the Olympics; however, many of the migrant laborers working as taxi drivers in Beijing know little to no English (Previous Report).
Beijing physicians are most likely familiar with English medical terms, and the large number of student volunteers expected to help will also be able to assist in translations.
Negative Long Term Effects
While the BOCOG will most likely keep a close eye on any potential food or safety hazards in Beijing, the rest of China will likely be largely neglected. The small factories in the vast countryside have lax oversight, highlighted by fake milk powder sold in Anhui province in 2004 that led to the deaths of at least 13 infants and the use of a cancer-causing dye to color egg yolks in 2006.
Additionally, China’s plan to begin diverting water from the Yellow River to Beijing and Qingdao, the site of Olympic sailing events, will likely lead to a water shortage crisis in the drought-prone northern part of the country.
BOCOG officials will likely provide quality medical assistance, food and water products to visitors at the Olympics. However, lax quality controls in the countryside may still pose a threat if the management system does not properly monitor all animal products entering the city.
