中國一年120萬人死於空氣污染
黃安偉 2013年04月02日
北京——一份有關全球主要致死原因的科研新數據顯示，2010年，中國有120萬人因戶外空氣污染而過早死亡，幾乎佔全球總數的40%。
研究者稱，換句話來說，中國的污染致死人數意味着，中國人口為污染付出的代價是2500萬年的健康壽命。
這項分析所依據的數字首先由雄心勃勃的《2010年全球致病量研究》(2010 Global Burden of Disease Study)提出，這篇文章於去年12月發表在英國醫學雜誌《柳葉刀》(Lancet)上。文章的各位作者決定把各個國家的數據單獨提出來，並在國際會議上宣讀研究發現。上周日，中國的數據在北京的一次論壇上面世。
美國健康影響研究所(Health Effects Institute)為該研究的發表提供幫助，該所副所長羅比特·奧基弗(Robert O'Keefe)稱，"我們一直在編製印度及中國的國別數字，因為與地區數字相比，這些數字對國家領導人的影響更直接。"該所的部分財政來源是美國環境保護局(United States Environmental Protection Agency)及全球汽車產業。
這些研究者所說的"環境顆粒物污染"是2010年中國第四大致命因素，排在前三位的是飲食風險、高血壓及吸煙。空氣污染是全球第七大危險，2010年有320萬人因此死亡。
印度也有一些污染程度與中國相似的人口密集城市。該研究發現，與中國相比，印度2010年由室外空氣導致造成的過早死亡是62萬例。這被視作南亞第六普遍的致死因素。
該研究的主持者是華盛頓大學(University of Washington )的一個研究所，以及包括世界衛生組織(World Health Organization)在內的幾個夥伴院校及機構。
在一些中國官員看來，對戶外空氣污染導致的過早死亡進行統計具有政治風險。據新聞報道，中國官員曾對一份討論過早死亡的2007年報告進行刪減。該報告名為《中國污染代價》(Cost of Pollution in China)。報告作者總結道，中國每年有35萬到40萬人因戶外空氣污染過早死亡。該研究由世界銀行(World Bank)及中國環境保護總局合作完成。該局是環境保護部的前身。
關於空氣污染導致的過早死亡，還有其他一些估計數字。2011年，世界衛生組織估計，全球各城市有130萬人因戶外空氣污染過早死亡。
上月，總部位於巴黎的經濟合作與發展組織(Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)警告稱，"到2050年，城市空氣污染將成為世界範圍內導致死亡的頭號環境因素，位列水污染和公共衛生缺乏之前。"該組織估計，每年可能有360萬人因空氣污染而過早死亡，主要是在中國和印度。
在中國的城市裡，許多人認為空氣污染已經到了無法遏制的程度，人們對此越來越憤怒。1月，華北各城市的空氣污染達到了創紀錄的水平。因此，儘管宣傳官員先前限制進行類似的討論，中國官方報紙還是就空氣污染大幅加重（一些外國人稱其為"空氣污染大災變"）刊登了頭版文章。2月，國務院宣布了推行新燃油標準的時間表，然而，眾所周知，為了節省成本，國有石油和電力公司一直在阻撓或漠視環保政策。
周四公布的一項研究稱，中國113個城市公開污染信息的增長速度已經降低。實施這項研究的是總部位於北京的公眾環境研究中心，以及總部設在華盛頓的美國自然資源保護委員會(Natural Resources Defense Council)。這兩個機構表示，"面對當前嚴峻的大氣、水、土壤污染形勢，必須儘快改變污染源監管信息公開零散、滯後、不完整、不易獲取的局面。"
在公開關鍵的空氣污染數據方面，中國官員已經取得了一些進步。官方新聞報道稱，74個城市已被要求公布直徑2.5微米以下的微粒水平，這些微粒滲入人體組織的程度最深。多年來，中國官員一直在收集數據，但卻拒絕公布數據，直到中國民眾施加壓力為止。中國民眾發現，位於北京的美國大使館每個小時都會測量污染水平，並將測得的數據發佈在Twitter的@BeijingAir賬戶上。
上周，中國官方媒體的一篇新聞報道稱，2010年，中國的環境退化成本約為2300億美元（15389.5億元），佔國內生產總值的3.5%。據稱，這一估算結果並不全面。這個數據來自環保部下屬的一個研究機構，以人民幣計算相當於2004年的三倍。尚不清楚，在彙編這些數據的時候，該機構在多大程度上考慮了污染導致的醫療保健和過早死亡成本。
April 02, 2013
Air Pollution Linked to 1.2 Million Premature Deaths in China
BEIJING — Outdoor air pollution contributed to 1.2 million premature deaths in China in 2010, nearly 40 percent of the global total, according to a new summary of data from a scientific study on leading causes of death worldwide.
Figured another way, the researchers said, China's toll from pollution was the loss of 25 million healthy years of life from the population.
The data on which the analysis is based was first presented in the ambitious 2010 Global Burden of Disease Study, which was published in December in The Lancet, a British medical journal. The authors decided to break out numbers for specific countries and present the findings at international conferences. The China statistics were offered at a forum in Beijing on Sunday.
"We have been rolling out the India- and China-specific numbers, as they speak more directly to national leaders than regional numbers," said Robert O'Keefe, the vice president of Health Effects Institute, a research organization that is helping to present the study. The organization is partly financed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the global motor vehicle industry.
What the researchers called "ambient particulate matter pollution" was the fourth leading risk factor for deaths in China in 2010, behind dietary risks, high blood pressure and smoking. Air pollution ranked seventh on the worldwide list of risk factors, contributing to 3.2 million deaths in 2010.
By comparison with China, India, which also has densely populated cities grappling with similar levels of pollution, had 620,000 premature deaths in 2010 because of outdoor air pollution, the study found. That was deemed to be the sixth most common killer in South Asia.
The study was led by an institute at the University of Washington and several partner universities and institutions, including the World Health Organization.
Calculations of premature deaths because of outdoor air pollution are politically threatening in the eyes of some Chinese officials. According to news reports, Chinese officials cut out sections of a 2007 report called "Cost of Pollution in China" that discussed premature deaths. The report's authors had concluded that 350,000 to 400,000 people die prematurely in China each year because of outdoor air pollution. The study was done by the World Bank in cooperation with the Chinese State Environmental Protection Administration, the precursor to the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
There have been other estimates of premature deaths because of air pollution. In 2011, the World Health Organization estimated that there were 1.3 million premature deaths in cities worldwide because of outdoor air pollution.
Last month, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, based in Paris, warned that "urban air pollution is set to become the top environmental cause of mortality worldwide by 2050, ahead of dirty water and lack of sanitation." It estimated that up to 3.6 million people could end up dying prematurely from air pollution each year, mostly in China and India.
There has been growing outrage in Chinese cities over what many say are untenable levels of air pollution. Cities across northern China hit record levels in January. Because of that, official Chinese newspapers ran front-page articles on the surge - what some foreigners call the "airpocalypse" - despite earlier limits on such discussion by propaganda officials. In February, the State Council, China's cabinet, announced a timeline for the introduction of new fuel standards, but state-owned oil and power companies are known to block or ignore environmental policies to save on costs.
A study released on Thursday said the growth rate of disclosure of pollution information in 113 Chinese cities had slowed. The groups doing the study, the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, based in Beijing, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, based in Washington, said that "faced with the current situation of severe air, water and soil pollution, we must make changes to pollution source information disclosure so that information is no longer patchy, out of date and difficult to obtain."
Chinese officials have made some progress in disclosing crucial air pollution statistics. Official news reports have said 74 cities are now required to release data on levels of particulate matter 2.5 micrometers in diameter or smaller, which penetrate the body's tissues most deeply. For years, Chinese officials had been collecting the data but refusing to release it, until they came under pressure from Chinese who saw that the United States Embassy in Beijing was measuring the levels hourly and posting the data in a Twitter feed, @BeijingAir.
Last week, an official Chinese news report said the cost of environmental degradation in China was about $230 billion in 2010, or 3.5 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. The estimate, said to be partial, came from a research institute under the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and was three times the amount in 2004, in local currency terms. It was unclear to what extent those numbers took into account the costs of health care and premature deaths because of pollution.
No comments:
Post a Comment