Australian Olympic team medical director Peter Baquie says the Beijing smog presents no danger to the team and has helped reveal closet asthma sufferers.
Mr Baquie said yesterday he had no concerns that Australia's team, of which one in five of the 433 athletes had some form of asthma, could be at risk of serious health problems by competing in the pollution in the Chinese capital.
The Australian Olympic Committee had been so concerned with the pollution that it screened every athlete for respiratory problems in the past year and did some testing with the men's hockey team in Beijing in August 2007.
The meticulous preparation had proven invaluable as it revealed several asthmatics who had yet to show symptoms but were now receiving treatment. AAP