暴露在受污染的空气中就像每天吸一包烟

暴露在受污染的空气中就像每天吸一包烟

Long-term exposure to air pollution, especially ground-level ozone, is like smoking about a pack of cigarettes a day for many years, a new study says, and like smoking, it can can lead to emphysema.

一项新的研究表明，长期暴露在空气污染中，尤其是地面臭氧，就像多年来每天吸一包烟一样，会导致肺气肿。

The study, published Tuesday in the medical journal JAMA, is the largest of its kind. It looked at exposure to air pollution -- specifically to ground-level ozone, fine particulate matter, nitrogen oxide and black carbon. The study looked at more than 7,000 adults ages 45 to 84 for over a decade in six US metropolitan areas -- Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles,  New York City, St. Paul, Minnesota, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

这项研究周二发表在医学杂志《美国医学会杂志》(JAMA)上，是同类研究中规模最大的。该研究着眼于暴露于空气污染中——特别是暴露于地面臭氧、细颗粒物、氮氧化物和黑碳中。这项研究对美国六个大都市-巴尔的摩、芝加哥、洛杉矶、 纽约市、明尼苏达州圣保罗和北卡罗来纳州温斯顿-塞勒姆的7，000多名年龄从45岁到84岁的成年人进行了长达十年的调查。

Using a CT scan, researchers were able to see that that exposure to each of the pollutants was associated with the development of emphysema, a lung condition that causes shortness of breath, and is usually associated with cigarette smoking. It's a debilitating chronic disease that shrinks the amount of oxygen that reaches your bloodstream.

通过CT扫描，研究人员能够发现，接触这些污染物都与肺气肿的发生有关。肺气肿是一种导致呼吸急促的肺部疾病，通常与吸烟有关。这是一种使人衰弱的慢性疾病，会减少进入血液的氧气量。

Scientists were able to show a decline in lung function with a spirometry, a simple test that measures how much air you can breathe out in one forced breath.

科学家们可以通过肺活量测定法来显示肺功能的下降。肺活量测定法是一种简单的测试，可以测量你在一次强制呼吸中可以呼出多少空气。

The patients were all healthy when they started the study, and researchers controlled for factors that could compromise lung health, including age and whether the person was a smoker or was regularly exposed to secondhand smoke.

这些患者在开始研究时都是健康的，研究人员控制了可能损害肺部健康的因素，包括年龄以及患者是吸烟者还是经常暴露在二手烟中。

The strongest association between a pollutant and emphysema was seen with exposure to ozone, which was the only pollutant associated with an additional decline in lung function.

污染物和肺气肿之间最明显的联系是暴露在臭氧中，臭氧是唯一与肺功能进一步下降相关的污染物。

Exposure to ozone irritates the lining of our lungs when we breathe it in. It can leave us winded, cause asthma attacks, make us more susceptible to infection.

当我们吸入臭氧时，它会刺激我们的肺内壁。它会让我们喘不过气来，引起哮喘发作，使我们更容易受到感染。

Ground-level ozone is the part of smog that you can't see. It's colorless and it comes from the photochemical transformation that occurs when pollutants interact with sunlight.

地面臭氧是你看不见的烟雾的一部分。它是无色的，它来自于污染物与阳光相互作用时发生的光化学转化。

With the climate crisis, there could be much higher levels of ground-level ozone in the future.

随着气候危机，未来可能会有更高水平的地面臭氧。

"Ground-level ozone is produced when UV light reacts with pollutants from fossil fuels," added Barr. "This process is accelerated by heatwaves, so ground-level ozone will likely continue to increase unless additional steps are taken to reduce fossil fuel emissions and curb climate change. But it's not clear what level of ozone is safe for human health."

“当紫外线与化石燃料中的污染物发生反应时，地面臭氧就会产生，”巴尔补充说。“热浪加速了这一过程，所以 地面臭氧可能会继续增加 除非采取额外的措施来减少化石燃料的排放,遏制气候变化。 但不清楚何种水平的臭氧对人类健康安全的。”

Earlier studies predicted exposure to ground-level ozone could lead to millions more acute respiratory problems and would cost the United States billions of dollars. Exposure to air pollution caused more than 107,000 premature deaths in the United States in 2011 alone, research has found.

早些时候，世界卫生组织( Study )预测，暴露在地面臭氧下可能会导致数以百万计的急性呼吸道问题，并会给美国带来数十亿美元的损失。研究发现，仅2011年，美国就有超过10.7万人因暴露于空气污染而过早死亡。

"The big surprise was the magnitude of this, putting pollution in the same league as cigarette smoking," said Kaufman. "Cigarette smoking is by far the best known cause of emphysema. The fact that ozone is in the same league was definitely a surprise."

考夫曼说:“最令人惊讶的是污染的严重程度，污染程度与吸烟不相上下。”到目前为止，吸烟是引起肺气肿的最著名的原因。臭氧与之同属一类，这一事实无疑令人惊讶。”