Beijing smog confines soccer superstars to hotel

BEIJING, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- An air pollution alert Thursday in Beijing closed highways, restricted visibility and prevented international soccer stars from leaving their hotel.

The orange alert Thursday, the second-highest warning level, was an increase over the yellow alert issued Wednesday, and left Brazilian soccer stars Neymar, David Luiz and Kaka, among others, confined to their hotel by their team's doctor.

A team of Brazilian all-stars will play counterparts from Argentina in a "friendly" exhibition match in Beijing Saturday.

Smog, partly the result of farmers burning plant stalks after the autumn harvest, reached 359 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter of PM2.5, particulates which harm human health, the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center said. The alert is expected to last three more days.

Brazilian soccer officials have forbidden their team from leaving the five-star Intercontinental Hotel, where they are staying, except for brief training sessions, and expressed shock at air quality conditions.

"One of the pieces of advice that those responsible for pollution control give is that people should stay indoors and this is what we have done. Our athletes stay inside the hotel and only go out for training. Out of every 24 hours, they spend 22 inside the hotel," Rodrigo Lasmar, Brazilians' team doctor, told the newspaper Estado de São Paulo.

Brazilian journalist Alexandre Lozetti, traveling with the team, noted China welcomed the team with "fog, smoke and dust."