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Supplying the Beijing Olympics
Numerous U.S. companies provided safety, health, environmental, and security equipment for use during this month's games.
Billions of people beheld an Olympics of unprecedented size and beauty when the opening ceremony raised the curtain Aug. 8 on Beijing, China, home to 15 million residents. Their water system, fire protection, transportation, and air quality have been improved expressly to showcase this event, and American companies' products are involved in much of this transformation.
Safety
PPE. Beijing banned smoking in public places, including parks, on May 1, and China promised this would be a smoking-free Olympics. Not only did the Beijing fire brigade put several new fire stations in service for these games, but the department also developed and implemented a digital fire response system with help from Tsinghua University and other agencies. The system helps to pinpoint a fire's location, chooses the best route for responders, and dispatches firefighters. All 93 Olympics venues were equipped with this technology by the end of 2007. MSA China (part of Pittsburgh, Pa.-based MSA) provided SCBAs, thermal imaging cameras, and gas masks to the brigade and supplied fire helmets for use at the games' water sports venue.
A spokesman for the 3M Occupational Health and Environmental Safety Division (St. Paul, Minn.) said the division was among "a number of 3M businesses providing a wide variety of products" to support the games. PPE provided by the unit to various Chinese health and Olympics agencies for use in preparation for the games included respiratory, hearing, eye protection, and reflective products. The company did not reveal how much of this equipment it provided.
Food safety. Screening efforts ahead of and during the games included use of DuPont Qualicon's BAX polymerase chain reaction detection system in food safety inspections by the Beijing Municipal Center for Food Safety Monitoring. Indeed, the November 2007 adoption of the Beijing Declaration on Food Safety underscored the concern about this area from China and the rest of the world. The adoption took place at a forum co-sponsored by the World Health Organization, China's Ministry of Health, and China's State Administration for Quality and Safety Inspection and Quarantine. The declaration urges all countries to develop comprehensive programs to improve consumer protections and to actively participate in the International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN).
ARAMARK Corp. (Philadelphia, Pa.), official catering service provider for these games, expects to serve more than 3.5 million meals during the Aug. 8-24 Summer Olympics and the Sept. 6-17 Paralympic Games in Beijing. ARAMARK has about 10,000 employees in more than 15 Chinese cities providing facility management and food service for more than 200 health care operations, manufacturing and commercial office buildings, government organizations, and sporting events.
The DuPont (Wilmington, Del.) BAX System enables fast testing for salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, Listeria, and other pathogens in food samples. The China division of Moody International Inc. (The Woodlands, Texas), also worked with the Beijing municipal government's food safety authorities as technical adviser on a food safety and hygiene management training program for restaurants and caterers. Moody, which said it was the first training service provider accredited by the governmental authority, said the training will extend to more than 50,000 restaurants and 100,000 food safety managers during the next two years, but the first priority was to train the food safety managers for restaurants and 20,000 catering personnel serving the games.
Security
BOCOG, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (http://en.beijing2008.cn), will deploy more than 80,000 security personnel and an array of fixed and portable detection devices for these games.
Toxic gas and radiation monitoring. This year, RAE Systems' radiation detection and wireless toxic gas monitoring equipment was permanently deployed at the Beijing Capital International Airport. The company's devices also were used at the Barcelona (1992, summer), Salt Lake City (2002, winter), Athens (2004, summer), and Torino (2006, winter) games and the Munich World Cup (2006), spokesman Bob Durstenfeld said. "I think it's become a very unfortunate reality that you have to do atmospheric monitoring at these events," he said. With at least 10 heads of state and more than 100 corporate chieftains expected to attend the Beijing games, "security is paramount," he added. Universal Detection Technology (Los Angeles, Calif.) has provided radiation detection equipment for use at entrances to sports stadiums and the Olympic Village.
Explosives detection. American Science and Engineering Inc. (Billerica, Mass.) is supplying its Gemini Parcel Inspection Systems to screen for explosives and contraband in parcels at key checkpoints for the games. The system has two imaging systems in one machine: dual-energy transmission for metallic detection plus proprietary Z® Backscatter™ technology for enhanced organic detection.
This article originally appeared in the August 2008 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.