空氣污染造成中國印度數百萬人死亡

The latest report on the “global burden of disease” finds air pollution caused the premature deaths of 5.5 million people in 2013, with China just ahead of India in deaths and the two countries together accounting for more than half the global total. The findings were released Friday by scientists at the University of British Columbia and discussed today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in Washington.

關於“全球疾病負擔”的最新報告發現，在2013年，空氣污染導致550萬人過早死亡，中國和印度加起來佔了全球總數的一半以上，其中中國略高於印度。這項研究結果於上週五由不列顛哥倫比亞大學(University of British Columbia)的科學家發佈。美國科學促進會(American Association for the Advancement of Science)今天在華盛頓的年度會議上對它進行了討論。

In China most deaths were urban and the result of pollution from coal-burning power plants. In India, the main danger is indoor cooking and heating fires fueled by dried dung or firewood. Here’s more on the work from the University of British Columbia, which teamed up on the study with the nonprofit Health Effects Institute:

在中國，大多數死亡案例發生在城市，死因是燃煤電廠導致的污染。而在印度，主要危險是在室內燃料幹牛糞或木柴用以烹飪和取暖。這項研究由不列顛哥倫比亞大學和非營利性組織健康影響研究所(Health Effects Institute)聯合進行，內容還包括：

About 1.6 million people died of air pollution in China and 1.4 million died in India in 2013.

在2013年，中國有大約160萬人死於空氣污染，印度有140萬。

In China, burning coal is the biggest contributor to poor air quality. Qiao Ma, a PhD student at the School of Environment, Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, found that outdoor air pollution from coal alone caused an estimated 366,000 deaths in China in 2013.

在中國，燒煤是空氣污染的最大元兇。北京清華大學環境專業博士生馬橋（音）發現，2013年，僅燃煤造成的室外空氣污染就在中國導致約36.6萬人死亡。

Ma also calculated the expected number of premature deaths in China in the future if the country meets its current targets to restrict coal combustion and emissions through a combination of energy policies and pollution controls. She found that air pollution will cause anywhere from 990,000 to 1.3 million premature deaths in 2030 unless even more ambitious targets are introduced.

馬橋還計算了如果中國通過能源政策和污染控制方式限制了煤燃燒和排放，達到其當前目標，那麼在未來中國可能會有多少人過早死亡。她發現，如果不制定更加嚴格的目標，那麼在2030年，空氣污染造成過早死亡人數將在99萬到130萬人之間。

“Our study highlights the urgent need for even more aggressive strategies to reduce emissions from coal and from other sectors,” said Ma.

“我們的研究突顯了採取更加積極的策略，減少燃煤排放和其它排放的迫切性，”馬橋說。

In India, a major contributor to poor air quality is the practice of burning wood, dung and similar sources of biomass for cooking and heating. Millions of families, among the poorest in India, are regularly exposed to high levels of particulate matter in their own homes.

在印度，使用木柴、牛糞及類似生物質來烹飪和取暖是空氣污染的一大成因。在印度最貧窮的人口中，數以百萬計的家庭經常在自己家中接觸到高水平的顆粒物。

“India needs a three-pronged mitigation approach to address industrial coal burning, open burning for agriculture, and household air pollution sources,” said Chandra Venkataraman, professor of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, in Mumbai, India.

“印度需要三管齊下的紓解方案，來解決工業燃煤、露天焚燒農業秸稈，家庭空氣污染來源問題，”印度理工學院孟買分校(Indian Institute of Technology Bombay)的化學工程教授錢德拉·文卡塔拉曼(Chandra Venkataraman)說。