Oregon Public Broadcasting

The opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympic games are Friday, but already the issue of air quality is causing a stir.

As Andrew Theen reports, both Chinese officials and U.S. embassy workers are using an Oregon product to monitor pollution.

The Grants Pass company Met One Instruments sent three of its hand-held air-monitoring devices to China for use by the U.S. Embassy.

Met One's vice president of sales Peter Pomponi says the company has already sent hundreds of instruments to the Far East -- those instruments are in the hands of the Chinese government.

Pomponi said the machine can't be manipulated to give false readings.  He said it does matter however where you take a reading.

Pomponi said the particulates hanging in the Beijing air could have been generated weeks ago.

Peter Pomponi: "It's not going to get cleared out just simply by removing the source.  I think a lot of people at first thought that Beijing or China would be able to manage the air quality there and now it's becoming apparent that it's not, it's up to nature."

Pomponi says after looking at pictures and videos from China, the  air quality in Beijing is "definitely bad."