空气污染困扰全球九成以上人口
HONG KONG — The World Health Organization said Tuesday that 92 percent of people breathe what it classifies as unhealthy air, in another sign that atmospheric pollution is a significant threat to global public health.
香港——世界卫生组织（World Health Organization，简称WHO）周二称，根据其标准，世界上92%的人呼吸着不健康的空气。这再度表明，大气污染对全球公众健康构成了重大威胁。
A new report, the W.H.O.’s most comprehensive analysis so far of outdoor air quality worldwide, also said about three million deaths a year — mostly from cardiovascular, pulmonary and other noncommunicable diseases — were linked to outdoor air pollution. Nearly two-thirds of those deaths are in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific region, compared with 333,000 in Europe and the Americas, the report said.
WHO新发布的一份研究报告还说，每年约有300万例死亡——死因多为心血管病、肺病以及其他非传染性疾病——与室外空气污染有关。WHO在报告中对世界各地的空气质量做了迄今为止最全面的分析。报告称，相关死亡案例有将近三分之二发生在东南亚和西太平洋地区，相比之下，欧洲和美洲共发生33.3万例。
“When you look out through the windows in your house or apartment, you don’t see the tiny little particles that are suspended in the air, so the usual perception is that the air is clean,” Rajasekhar Balasubramanian, an air quality expert at the National University of Singapore who was not involved in the study, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.
“透过自家房子或公寓的窗户往外望，你看不见空气中悬浮的微小颗粒，所以常常以为空气很干净，”与该报告无关的新加坡国立大学空气质量专家拉贾塞卡•巴拉苏布拉马尼安(Rajasekhar Balasubramanian)周二接受电话采访时说。
“But the W.H.O. report is a clear indication that even in the absence of air pollution episodes, the concentrations of particles suspended in the air do exceed what’s considered to be acceptable from a health viewpoint,” he said.
“但WHO的报告清楚地表明，即便是在没发生空气污染事件的情况下，从健康角度看，空气中悬浮颗粒的浓度也的确超出了被认为是可接受的程度，”他说。
In previous studies, the W.H.O. estimated that more than eight in 10 people in urban areas that monitored air pollution were breathing unhealthy air and that about seven million deaths a year were linked to indoor and outdoor pollution.
WHO以前的报告曾估计，在空气污染受到监测的城市地区，每十个人里有八个呼吸着不健康的空气；此外，每年约有700万例死亡与室内外污染有关。
The new study reduced the second estimate to 6.5 million deaths. But María P. Neira, director of the W.H.O.’s Department of Public Health and Environment, said in a telephone interview that “the trends are still going in the wrong direction.”
在这份新报告中，第二个数字被减少为650万例。但WHO公共卫生与环境司司长玛丽亚•P•内拉(María P. Neira)接受电话采访时说，情况“还在朝着错误的方向发展”。
“Somebody has to pay for those health systems to sustain the treatment and the care for those chronic patients, and this is something that countries need to balance when they make decisions about the sources of energy they are selecting or the choices they make in terms of public transport,” Dr. Neira said. “These economic costs of health have to be part of the equation.”
“得有人为那些医疗卫生系统买单，以便让那些慢性病人得到治疗和护理。这是各个国家进行能源选择方面的决策，或者做出公共交通方面的抉择时，需要综合考量的因素之一，”内拉说。“这些与公共卫生有关的经济成本，必须成为方程式的一个因子。”
The W.H.O. study was conducted by dozens of scientists over 18 months and was based on data collected from satellites, air-transport models and ground monitors in more than 3,000 urban and rural locations, agency officials said Tuesday.
WHO官员周二称，这项研究是由数十名科学家花费逾18个月的时间完成的，所依据的数据源自卫星测量，大气输送模型以及覆盖3000多个城乡地点的地面监测器。
The agency defined unhealthy air as having concentrations of fine particulate matter, known as PM 2.5, above 10 micrograms per cubic meter, or 35.3 cubic feet, but it did not measure concentrations of ozone, nitrous oxide or other harmful pollutants.
WHO将不健康的空气定义为：空气中的细颗粒物，即PM2.5的浓度在每立方米（或每35.3立方英尺）10毫克以上。但它并未衡量臭氧、一氧化二氮以及其他有害污染物的浓度。
The study said that major drivers of global air pollution included inefficient energy use and transportation but that nonhuman factors, such as dust storms, also played a role.
报告称，导致全球空气污染的主要因素包括效率低下的能源使用和交通运输方式，但一些非人为因素，比如沙尘暴，也发挥了作用。
Professor Balasubramanian said it was an open question whether countries in Southeast Asia, a region that has densely packed cities and struggles to combat cross-border pollution, would choose to improve urban air quality by switching to cleaner fuels in their power plants, as Western European countries did several decades ago.
有着高密度城市的东南亚地区，目前正竭力对抗跨境污染。巴拉苏布拉马尼安教授称，东南亚国家是否会选择像数十年前的西欧国家那样，为了改善城市空气质量，转而使用清洁燃料发电，还是一个悬而未决的问题。
Prolonging the decisions will probably increase the health risk from air pollution, he said, because the region’s population is rising and demanding more energy.
他说，拖延做决定的时间很可能让源于空气污染的健康风险升高，因为该地区的人口正在增长，对能源的需求也与日俱增。
