空氣污染困擾全球九成以上人口

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——世界衛生組織（World Health Organization，簡稱WHO）週二稱，根據其標準，世界上92%的人呼吸着不健康的空氣。這再度表明，大氣污染對全球公衆健康構成了重大威脅。

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新發布的一份研究報告還說，每年約有300萬例死亡——死因多爲心血管病、肺病以及其他非傳染性疾病——與室外空氣污染有關。WHO在報告中對世界各地的空氣質量做了迄今爲止最全面的分析。報告稱，相關死亡案例有將近三分之二發生在東南亞和西太平洋地區，相比之下，歐洲和美洲共發生33.3萬例。

“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.

“透過自家房子或公寓的窗戶往外望，你看不見空氣中懸浮的微小顆粒，所以常常以爲空氣很乾淨，”與該報告無關的新加坡國立大學空氣質量專家拉賈塞卡•巴拉蘇布拉馬尼安(Rajasekhar Balasubramanian)週二接受電話採訪時說。

“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的報告清楚地表明，即便是在沒發生空氣污染事件的情況下，從健康角度看，空氣中懸浮顆粒的濃度也的確超出了被認爲是可接受的程度，”他說。

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以前的報告曾估計，在空氣污染受到監測的城市地區，每十個人裏有八個呼吸着不健康的空氣；此外，每年約有700萬例死亡與室內外污染有關。

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.”

在這份新報告中，第二個數字被減少爲650萬例。但WHO公共衛生與環境司司長瑪麗亞•P•內拉(María P. Neira)接受電話採訪時說，情況“還在朝着錯誤的方向發展”。

“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.”

“得有人爲那些醫療衛生系統買單，以便讓那些慢性病人得到治療和護理。這是各個國家進行能源選擇方面的決策，或者做出公共交通方面的抉擇時，需要綜合考量的因素之一，”內拉說。“這些與公共衛生有關的經濟成本，必須成爲方程式的一個因子。”

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官員週二稱，這項研究是由數十名科學家花費逾18個月的時間完成的，所依據的數據源自衛星測量，大氣輸送模型以及覆蓋3000多個城鄉地點的地面監測器。

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將不健康的空氣定義爲：空氣中的細顆粒物，即PM2.5的濃度在每立方米（或每35.3立方英尺）10毫克以上。但它並未衡量臭氧、一氧化二氮以及其他有害污染物的濃度。

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.

報告稱，導致全球空氣污染的主要因素包括效率低下的能源使用和交通運輸方式，但一些非人爲因素，比如沙塵暴，也發揮了作用。

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.

有着高密度城市的東南亞地區，目前正竭力對抗跨境污染。巴拉蘇布拉馬尼安教授稱，東南亞國家是否會選擇像數十年前的西歐國家那樣，爲了改善城市空氣質量，轉而使用清潔燃料發電，還是一個懸而未決的問題。

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.

他說，拖延做決定的時間很可能讓源於空氣污染的健康風險升高，因爲該地區的人口正在增長，對能源的需求也與日俱增。