A interesting article in the New York Times on Thursday about the measures US Olympic athletes are taking to prepare for Beijing’s notoriously bad pollution.

I took the above photo in January 2005 from an overpass on one of the grayer days in Beijing. On the worst days, you wouldn’t be able to make out the tall buildings in the distance because of the “wuran” (pollution).

When I lived in the city, the “wuran” was definitely something you noticed. Returning from a short walk to the Carrefore down the street, your clothes would smell foul and if you blew your nose, the tissue would turn black. Lovely.

Some researchers say that pollution levels on an average day in Beijing are as much as five times above World Health Organization safety standards. Many athletes with asthma are worried that the bad air conditions will exacerbate their breathing difficulties.

Trainers are telling athletes to avoid training in Beijing if at all possible and are even working out ways for them to possibly compete wearing masks or other super-secretive breathing devices that would give them an advantage over the competition.

Many news sources are really zeroing in on this issue of Beijing’s pollution. Beyond the danger to Olympic athletes, however, the article also mentions how any masks or other gadgets used by American athletes to protect themselves from the pollution could become a political issue:

The I.O.C. spokeswoman Sandrine Tonge said the international federation for each sport made the rules on what athletes can and can’t wear in competition. So it is conceivable that some athletes will wear masks during their Olympic events, but Mr. Wilber [the lead physiologist for the US Olympic Committee] said no Americans would do so.

“I think it would be a huge political issue and an embarrassment to the Chinese people and to the I.O.C. if American athletes wore masks in the event itself,” Mr. Wilber said. “If that image was beamed around the world on TV, it would cause nothing but problems.”