河北肺癌死亡率激增 工業污染疑是主因
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——一家地方腫瘤醫院發佈的信息和週五刊登於一家有影響力的中國媒體上的報道顯示，在環繞北京的一個重工業省，肺癌死亡率在過去40年增加了三倍多，而研究人員指出，日漸加重的大氣污染有可能是罪魁禍首。
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.
來自河北省腫瘤醫院的數據顯示，1973年至2012年間，河北的肺癌死亡率激增306%，遠遠超過全國平均水平，幾乎佔到所有因肺癌死亡人數的四分之一。
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.
美國癌症協會(American Cancer Society)的數據顯示，美國有不少州的肺癌死亡率比河北更高，但與河北和中國其他一些省份相反的是，美國的肺癌死亡率呈下降趨勢。
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.
河北腫瘤醫院的報告表示，河北的肺癌新增病例“急劇增加”，但它並沒有探究可能由什麼原因導致。那也許是因爲這觸及了一個政治上非常敏感的區域：空氣污染。上週五，總部位於上海的澎湃網發表了一篇援引河北這些數據的報道，小心翼翼地觸及了這個議題。文中引用當地一位不具名的省級環境部門官員的話表示，從2008年起，河北省大氣質量嚴重惡化。
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.
中國官員經常會對有關中國經濟急速增長如何導致環境普遍惡化的消息進行審查——包括一些世界上最爲嚴重的空氣污染情況。去年，一名前電視臺記者對中國災難性的空氣污染進行猛烈批評的報道引發轟動，之後便被從網絡上撤掉。
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.
河北大氣污染即使算不是中國最嚴重的，也在最嚴重的地區之列。中國是世界上第一大鋼鐵生產國，約佔全世界鋼鐵產量的一半，而官方統計數字顯示，河北無疑是中國最大的鋼鐵生產省份。中國北部的衛星圖像經常顯示，有一片煙霧集中在該省份上空。在綠色和平所做的全國污染最嚴重的城市排名中，排在前六位的城市均位於河北。
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.
另外一些報道也顯示，與河北交界的北京和天津的肺癌發病率也出現了上升。《中國日報》2014年援引北京市腫瘤防治研究辦公室副主任王寧的話報道，2010年，北京地區男性的肺癌發病率爲10萬人中有75.2例，相比於八年前增長了逾50%。儘管中國女性吸菸比例遠低於男性，但同一時期北京地區的女性肺癌發病率也增長了50%以上，達到10萬人中有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.
在河北省腫瘤醫院主任醫師賀宇彤2009年領銜發表的一份研究論文中，排除了人口壽命延長是肺癌死亡人數增加的主因，反而表示，研究結果表明空氣污染纔是第一病因。
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。中國的吸菸率比包括美國在內的很多國家都要高很多，至少在男性中是如此。《柳葉刀》雜誌去年發佈的一份報告顯示，約佔全世界人口十分之一的中國男性，消耗了全世界三分之一的菸草。
