空氣污染，讓我越來越笨！

有新的研究表明，空氣污染使我們變得更笨。研究對(duì)象雖然只涉及到了中國(guó)的兩萬人口，但是這些發(fā)現(xiàn)與整個(gè)世界都是息息相關(guān)的，因?yàn)槿?5%的人都呼吸著不安全的空氣。

Both language and arithmetic skills are affected, and high pollution levels led to pretty big drops in test scores for the individuals tested. How big? The average impact on those tested is equivalent to losing one year of education.

研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，這些測(cè)試對(duì)象的語言能力和算術(shù)能力都受到了影響，嚴(yán)重的空氣污染使得他們的測(cè)試分?jǐn)?shù)都大幅下降。 下降的多厲害呢?平均來看，下降的程度，相當(dāng)于人少讀了一年書。

It gets worse, though.

而且，事態(tài)仍然在朝更壞的方向發(fā)展。

“Polluted air can cause everyone to reduce their level of education by one year, which is huge,” said Xi Chen at Yale School of Public Health in the U.S., a member of the research team. “But we know the effect is worse for the elderly, especially those over 64, and for men, and for those with low education. If we calculate [the loss] for those, it may be a few years of education.”

研究小組成員、美國(guó)耶魯大學(xué)公共衛(wèi)生學(xué)院的陳曦表示:"空氣污染會(huì)導(dǎo)致每個(gè)人的受教育時(shí)長(zhǎng)倒退一年，這已不容小覷。但對(duì)于老年人、特別是64歲以上的老年人來說，影響還會(huì)更大。此外，對(duì)于男性、以及受教育程度低的人來說，更是如此。如果我們細(xì)細(xì)數(shù)來，會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)這一年抵得上上述人群的好幾年。”

"The damage on the aging brain by air pollution likely imposes substantial health and economic costs, considering that cognitive functioning is critical for the elderly for both running daily errands and making high-stake decisions," the study authors concluded.

“這一受損，對(duì)老年人的影響尤其大，造成的經(jīng)濟(jì)損失和健康損失不容忽視;因?yàn)閷?duì)于有些需要日常跑動(dòng)、甚至需要做一些高風(fēng)險(xiǎn)決策的老年人來說，認(rèn)知能力尤其重要。”

Previous research has shown that 7 million premature deaths are caused by pollution, but the results found here about intelligence are new. In addition, the study found that the longer people are exposed to dirty air, the larger the damage. Language is the most dramatically affected, and men more than women.

此前雖已有研究表明，有七百萬人的過早死亡都是由空氣污染引起的，但卻從沒指出人的智力也會(huì)受到空氣污染的影響。研究還發(fā)現(xiàn)，人們暴露在臟空氣中的時(shí)間越長(zhǎng)，損害就越大。其中，人的語言能力受到的影響是最大的，而且男性比女性受到的影響要大。

So what, exactly, are the mechanisms in play? Derrick Ho, from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said, “It is because high air pollution can potentially be associated with oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and neurodegeneration of humans.”

可是，為何會(huì)這樣，這背后的原理又是什么?香港理工大學(xué)的 Derrick Ho說："這是因?yàn)楦呖諝馕廴究赡芘c人類的氧化應(yīng)激、神經(jīng)炎癥和神經(jīng)退行性疾病有關(guān)。"