VOA慢速英语 2007 0214a

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.


A woman wears a face mask to protect her from polluted air in Lanzhou, China, in December

A new study shows that air pollution may be more of a risk for heart disease than scientists have thought. The research involved more than sixty-five thousand women in the United States.

Kristin Miller¹, a doctoral student at the University of Washington in Seattle, was the lead author of the study. She says the study showed that disease risk was related not just to which city a woman lived in, but also where in the city.

The study found that estimates of the effects of air pollution were often larger within cities than between cities. Yet averages between cities have served as the main measure of the long-term effects of pollutants².

The new findings lead some experts to suggest that current pollution limits may not be strong enough.

The New England Journal of Medicine published the study. The scientists examined rates of heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular events in women with long-term exposure to air pollution. The cardiovascular system is the heart and all of the passages that carry blood throughout the body.

The study involved women over the age of fifty who had no sign of cardiovascular disease at the start of the research. The study followed the women for as long as nine years to see how many developed cardiovascular problems.

The researchers used information from a government project, the Women's Health Initiative.

The researchers also examined levels of fine particles in the air in thirty-six areas across the country. That information came from the Environmental Protection Agency. The extremely small particles come from industrial smoke and traffic along with things like wood-burning fireplaces in houses.

In the study, every ten-microgram increase in pollution was linked to a twenty-four percent increase in the risk of a cardiovascular event. But it was related to a seventy-six percent increase in the risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

But just how do particles in the air damage the cardiovascular system? Douglas Dockery and Peter Stone at Harvard University in Massachusetts offer some theories in a related report. They say the particles may cause the lungs to swell³ and release chemicals from the pollutants into the blood. The chemicals then could damage the heart.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver⁴. I'm Barbara Klein.

1 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

2 pollutants   

污染物质（尤指工业废物）( pollutant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Pollutants are constantly being released into the atmosphere. 污染物质正在不断地被排放到大气中去。
• The 1987 Amendments limit 301(g) discharges to a few well-studied nonconventional pollutants. 1987年的修正案把第301条（g）的普通排放限制施加在一些认真研究过的几种非常规污染物上。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

3 swell   

vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强

参考例句：

• The waves had taken on a deep swell.海浪汹涌。
• His injured wrist began to swell.他那受伤的手腕开始肿了。

4 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。