Cigarette smoking and other uses of tobacco shave an average of 2.2 years off lifespans globally. But merely breathing—if the air is polluted—is more damaging to human health.

吸烟或将烟草用作他途能使全球平均寿命缩短2.2年，但呼吸受污染的空气会对人体健康造成更大损害。

That is the conclusion of a report published Tuesday by the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute, which identified air pollution as the world’s top threat to public health, responsible for reducing average life expectancy by 2.3 years worldwide.

这一结论来自芝加哥大学能源政策研究所周二发表的一份报告，该报告将空气污染定为公共健康的最大威胁，能导致全球平均预期寿命缩短2.3岁。

Between 2013 and 2021, the world’s second-largest economy improved overall air quality by more than 40% while the average lifespan of residents increased by more than two years, according to the report.

该报告称，2013年至2021年间，世界第二大经济体中国的整体空气质量改善了40%以上，而居民的平均寿命延长了两年以上。

By contrast, four countries in South Asia—India, Bangladesh Nepal and Pakistan—accounted for more than half of the total years of life lost globally due to pollution in the atmosphere over the same eight years. India alone was responsible for nearly 60% of the growth in air pollution across the globe during that time.

相比之下，印度、孟加拉国、尼泊尔和巴基斯坦等南亚四国在过去八年中，大气污染而引发的寿命损失年总数占全球的一半以上。在此期间，仅印度一国就造成了全球近60%的空气污染增长。

If India were to meet World Health Organization guidelines for particulate pollution, the life expectancy for residents of capital city New Delhi would increase by 12 years.

如果印度符合世界卫生组织关于颗粒物污染的排放标准，首都新德里居民的预期寿命将增加12年。

How seriously a country takes the problem typically depends in part on public awareness, according to Michael Greenstone, an economics professor at the University of Chicago who contributed to the report. Knowledge of the health risks of poor air quality is low in many African and Asian countries, which suffer the worst outcomes.

芝加哥大学经济学教授迈克尔·格林斯通对该报告做出了贡献，他表示，一个国家对这个问题的重视程度通常在一定程度上取决于公众意识。许多非洲和亚洲国家对空气质量差的健康风险知之甚少，这些国家的受到的影响最为糟糕。

“Air-pollution improvements are often driven by the demand of the people,” he said. Having access to reliable monitoring tools to enforce clean-air requirements is also important, he said.

他说：“空气污染的改善往往是由人民的需求推动的。”。他说，获得可靠的监测工具来执行清洁空气要求也很重要。

An experiment by American and Chinese university researchers over eight months in 2020 across China showed that public complaints about air-quality violations, on for example social-media platforms, were more effective in reducing a firm’s subsequent violations and emissions than private appeals.

2020年，美国和中国大学研究人员在中国各地进行了一项为期八个月的实验，结果表明，公众对空气质量违规行为的投诉，例如社交媒体平台上的投诉，在减少公司随后的违规行为和排放方面，比私人申诉更有效。

The Energy Policy Institute based its findings on an Air Quality Life Index developed by Greenstone and other researchers. The index is based on an estimation—extrapolated from a comparative study of the effects of air pollution on two groups in China—that long-term exposure to fine particulate matter at a concentration of 10 micrograms per cubic meter reduces a person’s lifespan by an average of one year.

能源政策研究所的研究结果基于Greenstone和其他研究人员开发的空气质量生活指数。该指数基于一项估计——根据对中国两组人群空气污染影响的比较研究推断——长期暴露于每立方米10微克浓度的细颗粒物会使人的寿命平均缩短一年。

Some studies have shown prolonged exposure to that level of pollution has a lesser, but still significant, impact on life expectancy.

一些研究表明，长期暴露在这种污染水平下对预期寿命的影响较小，但仍然显著。

Besides premature death, sustained exposure to air pollution can lead to a variety of illnesses, including heart disease, lung cancer and diabetes, other studies have shown.

其他研究表明，除了过早死亡外，持续暴露在空气污染中还可能导致多种疾病，包括心脏病、癌症和糖尿病。

编辑：ETTBL

翻译：Gleen

材料来源：The Wall Street Journal

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