空气污染困扰全球教程.doc

空气污染困扰全球 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