美国国家公共电台 NPR Montana Wildfires Provide A Wealth Of Data On Health Effects Of Smoke Exposure

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Wildfires in the Seeley Lake area of Montana this summer were longer and more intense than any in recent memory. Though they didn't reach B.J. Leiderman, who writes our theme music. Nora Saks with Montana Public Radio reports that the long fire season has given scientists a chance to study something they actually don't know much about - how prolonged smoke exposure affects people.

NORA SAKS, BYLINE¹: Jean Loesch and her family live right in Seeley Lake, which had the worst smoke. She has 10 kids altogether. All are adopted or foster children.

JEAN LOESCH: So this is Hayden (ph). This is Perry (ph). This is Ally (ph). They're twins.

SAKS: Loesch says that during the summer, the smoke was so thick outside that they couldn't see the trees across the street. So they stayed inside. And it was still really hard to breathe.

LOESCH: These guys were miserable². Each one of them ended up having to going to the doctor. Everyone had a puffer.

SAKS: She says most of her kids didn't need inhalers before. And her family is usually pretty healthy but not this year. Loesch says she got pneumonia³. The kids had bloody⁴ noses. And now, even with the smoke long gone...

LOESCH: They'll wake up hacking⁵. They've all been sick, whether it was a cold - I've had to take them in for upper respiratory infections.

SAKS: The 2017 wildfire season lasted from the end of July through mid-September. Rachel Hinnenkamp with Montana's Health Department has been tracking how many people went to emergency rooms complaining of respiratory-related symptoms during that time. And the number more than doubled for people who lived near active wildfires.

RACHEL HINNENKAMP: The number of visits in 2016 was 163. And that increased to 378. So that's a statistically⁶ significant increase.

SAKS: She says it's too early to say whether all of those ER visits were directly related to the long and severe wildfires this summer. But most came after the fires had been burning for about a month. The more you're in polluted air, the worse your health gets. But no one knows exactly what Montana residents can expect in the long run from this past season.

SARAH COEFIELD: The smoke that we saw this year in Seeley Lake was like nothing we've ever seen.

SAKS: That's Sarah Coefield, the air quality specialist for the Missoula City-County Health Department. The EPA says concentrations of fine particulate⁷ matter in the air above 35 micrograms per cubic meter is unhealthy. Coefield says this summer, the county's air quality was so bad their monitors couldn't even measure it because their instruments max out at 1,000 micrograms.

COEFIELD: We pegged⁸ out 20 different times. So that's 20 hours that we don't know what the actual number was over a thousand.

SAKS: Researchers don't know a lot about that kind of extended smoke exposure. Most previous studies have focused on firefighters, indoor wood-burning stoves and urban air pollution. And it handed scientists a golden opportunity to learn more about the health effects. Chris Migliaccio is with the University of Montana's School of Pharmacy⁹.

CHRIS MIGLIACCIO: Usually, these exposures are maybe a couple weeks at high levels. This was over a month at really unprecedented¹⁰ levels. We have no idea what the long-term effects are.

SAKS: Migliaccio, who's an immunologist, is part of a big team of UM researchers who are now trying to fill in those holes in knowledge. Working with the county health department, they've started tracking a group of Seeley Lake residents. They're documenting changes in their physical and mental health over time. He suspects they'll see more respiratory infections and residents with weaker immune systems.

MIGLIACCIO: I can't tell you you will be susceptible¹¹. You will get flu. But because of these exposures, you're probably at an increased risk. But we haven't done these studies. And that's something we want to follow with the Seeley Lake cohort.

SAKS: The biggest hurdle¹² right now is funding. The researchers are applying for grants. They hope to track people for years to find out whether the health impacts of extended smoke exposure dissipate or linger on. For NPR News, I'm Nora Saks in Missoula, Mont.

SIMON: And that story, a part of a reporting partnership¹³ between NPR, Montana Public Radio and Kaiser Health News.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。

3 pneumonia   

n.肺炎

参考例句：

• Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
• Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。

4 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

5 hacking   

n.非法访问计算机系统和数据库的活动

参考例句：

• The patient with emphysema is hacking all day. 这个肺气肿病人整天不断地干咳。
• We undertook the task of hacking our way through the jungle. 我们负责在丛林中开路。

6 statistically   

ad.根据统计数据来看，从统计学的观点来看

参考例句：

• The sample of building permits is larger and therefore, statistically satisfying. 建筑许可数的样本比较大，所以统计数据更令人满意。
• The results of each test would have to be statistically independent. 每次试验的结果在统计上必须是独立的。

7 particulate   

adj.微小的；n.微粒，粒子

参考例句：

• A special group was organized to dig up the particulate of the case.成立了一个专门小组来查明该案件的各个细节。
• Lungs retain relatively insoluble particulate material.肺脏内留有不溶解的颗粒物质。

8 pegged   

v.用夹子或钉子固定( peg的过去式和过去分词 )；使固定在某水平

参考例句：

• They pegged their tent down. 他们钉好了账篷。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She pegged down the stairs. 她急忙下楼。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

9 pharmacy   

n.药房，药剂学，制药业，配药业，一批备用药品

参考例句：

• She works at the pharmacy.她在药房工作。
• Modern pharmacy has solved the problem of sleeplessness.现代制药学已经解决了失眠问题。

10 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

11 susceptible   

adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的

参考例句：

• Children are more susceptible than adults.孩子比成人易受感动。
• We are all susceptible to advertising.我们都易受广告的影响。

12 hurdle   

n.跳栏，栏架；障碍，困难；vi.进行跨栏赛

参考例句：

• The weather will be the biggest hurdle so I have to be ready.天气将会是最大的障碍，所以我必须要作好准备。
• She clocked 11.6 seconds for the 80 metre hurdle.八十米跳栏赛跑她跑了十一秒六。

13 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。