Beijing pollution to cast pall over Olympic performance.

Smog is spreading a toxic haze over hopes that the 2008 Beijing Olympics will be as superlative in sporting achievement as it will be in spending and glitz.

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One more year… and counting. About one in six summer athletes use asthma inhalers to help open up breathing airways in the lungs. But because the pollution in Beijing is so foul, many athletes who never before had trouble breathing may suddenly find themselves slightly short of breath. [News Source]

A year to go and China’s obsession with the Olympics grows. The U.S. and Japanese Olympic authorities have expressed concern about the level of air pollution in Beijing, which frequently envelops the Chinese capital in a brown, headache-inducing haze. [News Source]

Hard decisions on Bulgaria’s Kremikovtsi. The monthly fine that Kremikovtsi has to pay after the Regional Inspectorate on Environment and Waters (RIEW) recently completed its second check and analysis for 2007 on the pollution the steel factory causes, is about 100 000 leva. [News Source]

Businesses find ‘green’ practices can help their bottom line. Three years ago, the Sustainability Institute in North Charleston organized a program to teach builders how to integrate earth-friendly materials and techniques into their projects. [News Source]

Dope-free pork on the menu for Beijing Games. The official pork supplier to the 2008 Beijing Olympics is to rear organically-fed pigs at secret locations to provide athletes with safe meat guaranteed not to cause them to fail doping tests. [News Source]

Dutch carrier KLM makes pollution pledge. Dutch carrier KLM has pledged to reduce carbon emissions after signing an agreement with environmental group the World Wildlife Fund. [News Source]

Firms guilty of making ‘fake green claims’. A string of big-name companies in the UK has been caught out trying to cash in on the green marketing boom by making fake claims in adverts. [News Source]

The ethics of flying to serve the greater good. Depending on whom you're talking to, flying is either a clean, safe alternative to driving or the environmental equivalent of puppy eating. [News Source]

Pollution is a danger a jogger can’t run from. Runners who flock to Houston's jogging hotspots regularly encounter unwanted company: vehicles on roadways parallel to the trail, churning out exhaust and kicking up dust. [News Source]

Chicago cries foul over Indiana wastewater. Since word broke that BP America's Whiting Refinery had received a permit to release more waste into Lake Michigan, Chicagoans have been railing at BP and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, which issued the permit. [News Source]