Chinese officials say the air will not be an issue when China’s first Olympic Games start on August 8. They plan to limit vehicle use, close factories and do everything in their power to bring blue skies to Beijing. Jacques Rogge, the IOC President, said he is confident the air will be clean because Chinese officials “are not going to let down the world”.

With the Olympics fewer than seven months away, scientists are sceptical about the air quality for the Summer Games.

Pollution levels on a typical day in Beijing, some scientists say, are nearly five times above WHO standards for safety. Two prominent athletes — the marathon world-record holder Haile Gebrselassie and the world’s No 1 women’s tennis player Justine Henin have expressed reservations about competing in the Olympics for fear that pollution will exacerbate their breathing problems.

Some athletes, who competed in Olympic test events last year, complained that the foul air made it difficult to breathe and caused nausea. Colby Pearce, 35, an Olympic hopeful in track cycling from Boulder said he saw smog floating inside the velodrome in Beijing.

Wilber’s USOC lab here helped design a mask featuring an activated carbon filtration system. He is secretive about the details, hesitant to show it or to have it photographed.

Roughly 750 to 1,000 masks, which cost about $20 to $25 each, will be part of the Olympic gear given to athletes. The masks filter 85 per cent to 100 per cent of the main pollutants, Wilber said, compared with paper masks, which filter 25 per cent to 45 per cent.

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