Deteriorating air quality in Hong Kong is sending more people to hospital, says a new survey.
According to a pair of researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who examined day-to-day pollution levels and hospital visits over a six-year period, a rise in airborne pollutants in Hong Kong was associated with a rise in emergency hospital visits.
在对六年内香港的每日污染水平和医院就诊人次进行考查之后，香港中文大学(Chinese University of Hong Kong)的两位研究人员说，香港空气中的污染物增多与急诊病例数上升之间存在关联。Published in Environmental Health Perspectives, the study, led by professor Yu Tak Sun Ignatius and Ph.D candidate Hong Qiu, comes as residents report increasing levels of frustration with the city's pollution. In 2010, a survey found that one out of four Hong Kongers have considered leaving the city because of its air quality, up from one in five in 2008, according to local think-tank Civic Exchange. A few years ago, the director of the city's Philharmonic Orchestra had his family do just that, packing them up and moving them to Wisconsin, citing frustration with the city's lung-choking air.
该报告发表在《环境与健康展望》(Environmental Health Perspectives)上，此项研究由余德新教授和博士生邱宏牵头。研究报告发表正值香港市民表示对空气污染感到越来越失望之际。据香港智库思汇政策研究所(Civic Exchange)说，2010年，据一项调查显示，有四分之一的香港人因空气质量问题而考虑离开香港，而2008年时的比例为五分之一。几年前，香港管弦乐团的首席指挥就将妻儿从香港迁到了美国威斯康星州。这位指挥当时给出的搬家理由是香港的空气令人窒息。
A previous study by the University of Hong Kong this year suggested that air pollution was responsible for some 3,200 annual deaths in Hong Kong(pdf). Businesses consistently rank pollution as one of their top issues of concern in moving staff to Hong Kong, particularly those with young children.
香港大学(University of Hong Kong)今年早些时候进行的一项研究显示，空气污染导致香港每年约3,200人死亡。企业一直将污染列为派员工驻港时所担心的主要问题之一，特别是有小孩的员工。Mr. Yu and Ms. Qiu found that every 10 micrograms per cubic meter daily increase in coarse airborne pollutant particles resulted in a 1% increase in emergency hospital admissions for respiratory disease, or an additional 830 hospital admissions.
余德新和邱宏发现，每天每立方米空气中粗大颗粒污染物含量每增加10微克，就会导致呼吸系统急诊病例增加1%，即就诊病例增加830例。The study controlled for other kinds of pollutants, including PM2.5, superfine air particles dozens of times thinner than a human hair, which Hong Kong and mainland China only began publicly monitoring earlier this year. While such superfine particles are the greatest source of concern for public health experts, because of how they can penetrate the body's organs, the Hong Kong researchers also found that so-called 'coarse' particles--including those between 2.5 and 10 micrometers in size--likewise 'have a high impact on public health,' said Ms. Qiu.
研究以其他种类的污染物作为对比组，其中包括PM2.5。PM2.5是空气中的超细微颗粒物，直径只有人头发丝的几十分之一，香港和内地今年早些时候才刚刚开始公布PM2.5的监测数据。邱宏说，尽管这类超细微颗粒物是公共卫生专家最担心的问题，因为它们可以进入人体器官，但香港两位研究人员发现，所谓的粗颗粒（包括直径在2.5微米到10微米的颗粒物）对公众的健康也有很大影响。'These coarse particles shouldn't be ignored,' said Ms. Qiu, who says the city's future air quality objectives should adopt standards that explicitly address such particles. 'They can also cause cardiovascular and respiratory disease.' Even short-term exposure to heavy air pollution, experts say, can prompt heart failure, arrhythmias and stroke.
邱宏说，不应忽视这些粗颗粒。她说，香港未来的空气质量标准应该采用对这类颗粒物有明确限制的新标准。这类颗粒物也能引发心血管和呼吸系统疾病。专家说，就算短时间暴露在空气污染严重的环境中也能够造成心脏衰竭、心率失常和中风。