香港空氣污染造成患病人數增多
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.
在對六年內香港的每日污染水平和醫院就診人次進行考查之後，香港中文大學(Chinese University of Hong Kong)的兩位研究人員說，香港空氣中的污染物增多與急診病例數上升之間存在關聯。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.
該報告發表在《環境與健康展望》(Environmental Health Perspectives)上，此項研究由余德新教授和博士生邱宏牽頭。研究報告發表正值香港市民表示對空氣污染感到越來越失望之際。據香港智庫思匯政策研究所(Civic Exchange)說，2010年，據一項調查顯示，有四分之一的香港人因空氣質量問題而考慮離開香港，而2008年時的比例爲五分之一。幾年前，香港管弦樂團的首席指揮就將妻兒從香港遷到了美國威斯康星州。這位指揮當時給出的搬家理由是香港的空氣令人窒息。
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.
香港大學(University of Hong Kong)今年早些時候進行的一項研究顯示，空氣污染導致香港每年約3,200人死亡。企業一直將污染列爲派員工駐港時所擔心的主要問題之一，特別是有小孩的員工。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.
餘德新和邱宏發現，每天每立方米空氣中粗大顆粒污染物含量每增加10微克，就會導致呼吸系統急診病例增加1%，即就診病例增加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.
研究以其他種類的污染物作爲對比組，其中包括PM2.5。PM2.5是空氣中的超細微顆粒物，直徑只有人頭髮絲的幾十分之一，香港和內地今年早些時候纔剛剛開始公佈PM2.5的監測數據。邱宏說，儘管這類超細微顆粒物是公共衛生專家最擔心的問題，因爲它們可以進入人體器官，但香港兩位研究人員發現，所謂的粗顆粒（包括直徑在2.5微米到10微米的顆粒物）對公衆的健康也有很大影響。'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.
邱宏說，不應忽視這些粗顆粒。她說，香港未來的空氣質量標準應該採用對這類顆粒物有明確限制的新標準。這類顆粒物也能引發心血管和呼吸系統疾病。專家說，就算短時間暴露在空氣污染嚴重的環境中也能夠造成心臟衰竭、心率失常和中風。
