河北肺癌死亡率激增 工业污染疑是主因

HONG KONG — The death rate from lung cancer in the heavily industrialized province surrounding Beijing has more than quadrupled in the last four decades, with researchers pointing to worsening air pollution as a likely culprit, according to a local cancer hospital and a report published Friday in an influential Chinese news outlet.

香港——一家地方肿瘤医院发布的信息和周五刊登于一家有影响力的中国媒体上的报道显示，在环绕北京的一个重工业省，肺癌死亡率在过去40年增加了三倍多，而研究人员指出，日渐加重的大气污染有可能是罪魁祸首。

From 1973 to 2012, lung cancer cases in the province, Hebei, soared 306 percent, well above the national average, and accounted for almost a quarter of all cancer deaths, according to figures from the Tumor Hospital of Hebei Province. By 2012, the death rate from lung cancer in the province, which has 74 million people, or almost twice the population of California, was 35.22 per 100,000 people.

来自河北省肿瘤医院的数据显示，1973年至2012年间，河北的肺癌死亡率激增306%，远远超过全国平均水平，几乎占到所有因肺癌死亡人数的四分之一。

Lung cancer death rates in many American states are higher, but, in contrast to Hebei and other Chinese provinces, are on the decline, according to figures from the American Cancer Society.

美国癌症协会(American Cancer Society)的数据显示，美国有不少州的肺癌死亡率比河北更高，但与河北和中国其他一些省份相反的是，美国的肺癌死亡率呈下降趋势。

The hospital’s report said new cases of lung cancer were “rapidly surging” in Hebei, but it did not explore any possible causes of the surge. That may be because it touches on a very politically sensitive area: air pollution. A report on Friday in The Paper, a website based in Shanghai that cited the Hebei figures, approached the issue gingerly, citing an anonymous provincial environmental official as saying that since 2008, air pollution in the province had severely worsened.

河北肿瘤医院的报告表示，河北的肺癌新增病例“急剧增加”，但它并没有探究可能由什么原因导致。那也许是因为这触及了一个政治上非常敏感的区域：空气污染。上周五，总部位于上海的澎湃网发表了一篇援引河北这些数据的报道，小心翼翼地触及了这个议题。文中引用当地一位不具名的省级环境部门官员的话表示，从2008年起，河北省大气质量严重恶化。

Chinese officials routinely censor news about how China’s rapid economic growth has given rise to widespread environmental degradation, including some of the world’s worst air pollution. Last year, a former television reporter’s searing account of the country’s catastrophic air pollution was pulled from the Internet after it caused a sensation.

中国官员经常会对有关中国经济急速增长如何导致环境普遍恶化的消息进行审查——包括一些世界上最为严重的空气污染情况。去年，一名前电视台记者对中国灾难性的空气污染进行猛烈批评的报道引发轰动，之后便被从网络上撤掉。

Hebei’s air pollution is among the worst, if not the worst, in China. China is the world’s top steel producer, accounting for about half the world’s output, and Hebei is far and away China’s biggest steel maker, according to official figures. Satellite photos of northern China regularly show a miasma of smog centered on the province, home in 2013 to the six most polluted cities in the country, according to Greenpeace.

河北大气污染即使算不是中国最严重的，也在最严重的地区之列。中国是世界上第一大钢铁生产国，约占全世界钢铁产量的一半，而官方统计数字显示，河北无疑是中国最大的钢铁生产省份。中国北部的卫星图像经常显示，有一片烟雾集中在该省份上空。在绿色和平所做的全国污染最严重的城市排名中，排在前六位的城市均位于河北。

Separate reports show that lung cancer rates in the cities of Beijing and Tianjin, both bordering Hebei, have also increased. In Beijing, the incidence rate for males was 75.2 per 100,000 in 2010, a more than 50 percent rise from eight years earlier. For women, whose smoking rates are far lower than for men in China, the incidence rate also rose more than 50 percent during the same period, to 45.9 per 100,000, China Daily reported in 2014, citing Wang Ning, deputy director of the Beijing Office for Cancer Prevention and Control.

另外一些报道也显示，与河北交界的北京和天津的肺癌发病率也出现了上升。《中国日报》2014年援引北京市肿瘤防治研究办公室副主任王宁的话报道，2010年，北京地区男性的肺癌发病率为10万人中有75.2例，相比于八年前增长了逾50%。尽管中国女性吸烟比例远低于男性，但同一时期北京地区的女性肺癌发病率也增长了50%以上，达到10万人中有45.9例。

A 2009 research paper whose lead author was He Yutong, chief physician at the Hebei Tumor Hospital, ruled out increasing life spans as the main cause for the rise in lung cancer deaths in the province, stating that the research pointed to air pollution as a chief cause.

在河北省肿瘤医院主任医师贺宇彤2009年领衔发表的一份研究论文中，排除了人口寿命延长是肺癌死亡人数增加的主因，反而表示，研究结果表明空气污染才是第一病因。

Other factors may also be important. Smoking rates in China, at least among males, are far higher than in many countries, including the United States. Chinese men, who constitute about a tenth of the world’s population, smoke one-third of the world’s cigarettes, a study published last year in The Lancet found.

其他一些致病因素也非常重要。中国的吸烟率比包括美国在内的很多国家都要高很多，至少在男性中是如此。《柳叶刀》杂志去年发布的一份报告显示，约占全世界人口十分之一的中国男性，消耗了全世界三分之一的烟草。