NEW DELHI — India’s rapidly worsening air pollution is causing about 1.1 million people to die prematurely each year and is now surpassing China’s as the deadliest in the world, a new study of global air pollution shows.
新德里——一项新的全球空气污染研究显示，印度的空气污染正在迅速恶化，每年导致约110万人提早死亡，印度现在正在超越中国，成为世界上最致命的空气污染大国。
The number of premature deaths in China caused by dangerous air particles, known as PM2.5, has stabilized globally in recent years but has risen sharply in India, according to the report, issued jointly on Tuesday by the Health Effects Institute, a Boston research institute focused on the health impacts of air pollution, and the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, a population health research center in Seattle.
周二发布的这份报告显示，近年来，危险空气颗粒PM2.5在中国引起的过早死亡人数整体上已经稳定下来，但在印度却出现了急剧上升。该报告是波士顿的空气污染健康影响研究机构——健康效应研究所(Health Effects Institute)和西雅图的人口健康研究中心——卫生统计评估研究所(Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation)发布的。
India has registered an alarming increase of nearly 50 percent in premature deaths from particulate matter between 1990 and 2015, the report says.
报告称，从1990年至2015年间，颗粒物在印度导致的过早死亡人数增加了近50%。
“You can almost think of this as the perfect storm for India,” said Michael Brauer, a professor of environment and health relationships at the University of British Columbia and an author of the study, in a telephone interview. He cited the confluence of rapid industrialization, population growth and an aging populace in India that is more susceptible to air pollution.
“你几乎可以认为这对印度来说可谓祸不单行，”该研究的作者、不列颠哥伦比亚大学环境与健康关系教授迈克尔·布劳尔(Michael Brauer)在接受电话采访时说道。他表示，印度的快速工业化、人口增长和人口老龄化结合在一起，使其更容易受到空气污染的影响。
Pollution levels are worsening in India as it tries to industrialize, but “the idea that policy making should be led by government is lacking,” Bhargav Krishna, manager for environmental health at the Public Health Foundation of India, a health policy research center in New Delhi, said in an interview.
在新德里的健康政策研究中心印度公共健康基金会(Public Health Foundation)的环境卫生负责人巴葛夫·克里希纳(Bhargav Krishna)在接受采访时说，随着印度工业化进程的推进，该国的污染程度也在日益加剧，但“缺乏政策制定应该由政府主导的观念”。
As air pollution worsened in parts of the world, including South Asia, it improved in the United States and Europe, the report said, crediting policies to curb emissions, among other things. The report’s website that provides country-by-country data on pollution levels and the health and mortality effects.
该报告说，在南亚等地方的空气污染出现恶化的同时，美国和欧洲的空气污染状况得到了改善，这要归功于减排政策的制定。该报告的网站上有各国污染水平及其对健康和死亡率影响的数据。
Environmental regulations in the United States and actions by the European Commission have led to substantial progress in reducing fine particulate pollution since 1990, the report said. The United States has experienced a reduction of about 27 percent in the average annual exposure to fine particulate matter, with smaller declines in Europe. Yet, some 88,000 Americans and 258,000 Europeans still face increased risks of premature death because of particulate levels today, the report said.
报告说，自1990年以来，美国的环境法规和欧盟委员会的行动在减少细颗粒污染方面取得了重大进展。美国人平均每年接触的细微颗粒物减少了约27%，欧洲的减少幅度较小。然而，报告称，如今仍然有大约8.8万名美国人和25.8万欧洲人面临着由于目前的颗粒物水平导致过早死亡的风险。
A fraction of the width of a human hair, these particles can be released from vehicles, particularly those with diesel engines, and by industry, as well as from natural sources like dust. They enter the bloodstream through the lungs, worsening cardiac disease and increasing the risk of stroke and heart failure, in addition to causing severe respiratory problems, like asthma and pneumonia.
这些颗粒物的直径远不及人类的头发丝，其来源包括工业排放和车辆排放，特别是柴油发动机，也有灰尘这样的天然来源。它们通过肺进入血液循环，导致心脏病恶化，并增加中风和心力衰竭的风险，还会引起严重的呼吸问题，比如哮喘和肺炎。
The report offers good news globally, in some ways.
从某些方面看，该报告也给全世界带来了好消息。
Although deaths caused by air pollution grew to 4.2 million in 2015 from 3.5 million in 1990, the rate of increase of about 20 percent was slower than the rate of the population rise during that time. That’s because of improved health care in many parts of the world, as well as public policy initiatives undertaken in the United States, Europe and other regions that reduced emissions from industrialization, the authors of the study said in telephone interviews.
尽管空气污染致死人数从1990年的350万上升到了2015年的420万，但其20%左右的增速要低于同期的人口增速。报告作者接受电话采访时表示，这是因为世界上许多地方的医疗状况得到了改善，而且美国、欧洲等地都实施了推动工业减排的公共政策举措。
The health effects of the ultrafine particles are still being studied and the full effects are only beginning to be understood, said Majid Ezzati, a global environmental health professor at the Imperial College, London.
伦敦帝国学院(Imperial College)全球环境卫生教授马基德·伊扎提(Majid Ezzati)说，超细颗粒对健康的影响尚在研究之中，研究人员刚刚开始对其全面影响有所了解。
“These studies are hard to do, and isolating the effects of air pollution is hard,” Dr. Ezzati said. “The numbers are still dynamic and nobody should claim an exact number of deaths is known.”
“很难进行这些研究，很难把空气污染的影响单拎出来，”伊扎提说。“数字仍在变化，谁也不能宣称知道确切的死亡人数。”
But if he were an Indian citizen, he said, “I’d say, ‘Let’s not sit there and do nothing about it. Let’s not be exposed to it today as more research is being done.’”
但他表示，如果他是一名印度公民，“我会说，我们不能干坐着，得就此做点什么。在进一步的研究尚在进行的同时，我们还是别暴露在污染的空气中。”
Although few studies of the health problems brought by air pollution are based in India, Dr. Ezzati said, “it’s hard to imagine air pollution that is bad for people in London is not bad for people in India.”
针对空气污染引发的健康问题的研究，绝大多数不在印度进行，但伊扎提说，“很难想象对伦敦人有害的空气污染，对印度人就无害了。”
Neither India’s environment minister nor its environment secretary could be reached for comment Monday evening.
周一晚间，记者未能联系上印度的环境部长和环境部秘书并请其置评。
Robert O’Keefe, vice president at the Health Effects Institute, said China’s trajectory on deaths from air pollution had stabilized as a result of the country’s efforts to reduce air pollution.
健康影响研究所的副所长罗伯特·奥基夫(Robert O’Keefe)称，由于中国致力于减少空气污染，该国空气污染致死案例数量已经趋于稳定。
India, on the other hand, had yet to undertake sustained public policy initiatives to reduce pollution, said Gopal Sankaranarayanan, an advocate at the Supreme Court of India who successfully petitioned it to ban licenses to sell fireworks in the New Delhi metropolitan area last year. Fireworks during the festival of Diwali contributed to hazardous levels of air pollution late last year.
印度最高法院(Supreme Court of India)的倡导人士戈帕尔·桑卡拉纳拉亚南(Gopal Sankaranarayanan)说，另一方面，印度尚需采取持续的公共政策举措以减少污染。桑卡拉纳拉亚南去年曾成功提请印度最高法院禁止颁发在新德里都会区销售烟花的许可证。
Weak environmental regulation in India, he said, leaves India’s citizens with few alternatives other than to petition the courts to take action to protect the public’s health.
他说，印度的环境监管颇为薄弱，使得印度公民除了提请法院采取行动保护公众健康以外几乎没有别的选择。
But the courts often lack the power or mechanisms to enforce their actions, he said. India’s environmental court, the National Green Tribunal, ordered farmers to stop burning their crops in the region around New Delhi in 2015, but the practice still continued last year. Smoke from the farm fires contributed about one quarter of the levels of the most dangerous air pollution in the Indian capital, environmental experts said.
但他表示，法院常常缺乏执行力量或机制。印度的环保法庭——国家绿色法庭(National Green Tribunal)于2015年勒令农民停止在新德里周遭燃烧秸秆，但这种做法去年仍未禁绝。环保专家称，农场燃烧秸秆时生成的烟雾为印度首都最严重的空气污染贡献了四分之一的污染物。
“If you can’t enforce the directives of the courts — it becomes a problem,” Mr. Sankaranarayanan said. “We need practical solutions to save lives here in India.”
“如果无法执行法院的命令——这就成问题了，”桑卡拉纳拉亚南说。“为了挽救印度人的生命，我们需要实用的解决方案。”
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