大火与高温同时来袭，美国多地空气质量“爆表”

Smoke and heat are making it unhealthy to breathe in parts of the U.S.

在美国部分地区，烟雾和高温使得呼吸变得危险。

Yeah, the heat wave in the Southwest has spread. Parts of the Midwest and East Coast are getting smoke from Canada's wildfires.

是的，美国西南地区的热浪已经蔓延开来。中西部和东海岸部分地区受到加拿大野火的影响。

And NPR health correspondent Allison Aubrey is joining us this morning to discuss just how unhealthy this all is. Good morning.

今早，NPR健康记者艾莉森·奥布里将加入我们，讨论这一切有多大危害。早上好。

Good morning.

早上好。

OK, so we've seen images from Chicago and Detroit, now smoke again in New York and in the D.C. area. How bad is this for people's health?

好，我们已经看到了芝加哥和底特律的图片，现在纽约和华盛顿地区又开始烟雾缭绕了。这对人们的健康有多大负面影响？

Sure. Well, in the Chicago area, the air quality index is hovering above 200, which is very unhealthy. In Washington, D.C., right now, it's about 165 - also unhealthy.

是的。嗯，在芝加哥地区，空气质量指数徘徊在200以上，非常不健康。在华盛顿特区，目前的指数为165——同样不健康。

I spoke to Dr. Ravi Kalhan. He's a pulmonologist at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago.

我采访了拉维·卡尔汉医生。他是芝加哥西北医学院的肺病专家。

He told me with the heavy smoke and haze, these tiny, minute particles from the forest fires can get into people's lungs, and this can trigger a flare-up for people with asthma or chronic lung disease.

他告诉我，随着浓烟雾扩散，这些森林大火产生的微小颗粒可以进入人们的肺部，这会引发哮喘患者或慢性肺病患者突发疾病。

And associations are pretty clear in the medical literature that if you inhale a bunch of particles - particulate matter - there's a systemic inflammatory reaction in the body that can actually do things like trigger heart attacks and strokes.

医学文献很清楚地描述了其中的联系，如果你吸入一堆微粒——微粒物质——身体就会产生系统性炎症反应，这实际上会引发心脏病和中风。

He says susceptible adults should limit outdoor exposure, consider masking when going out and invest in high-quality filters or air purifiers for their homes.

他表示，易受影响的成年人应该限制户外接触，出门时考虑佩戴口罩，购入优质家庭过滤器或空气净化器。

Bottom line - he tells his patients to limit outdoor activity when air quality index hits a hundred.

底线是，当空气质量指数达到100时，他提醒病人要限制户外活动。

And right now, in many places, from Chicago to D.C., it's much higher than that.

而现在，在许多地方，从芝加哥到华盛顿特区，空气质量指数要高得多。

You can check out the air quality in your own town at the website airnow.gov.

你可以在airnow.gov网站上查看你所在城镇的空气质量。

OK. So what about people who don't have asthma or chronic lung disease, generally healthy people?

好。那对于那些没有患哮喘病或慢性肺病的人，那些普遍健康的人呢?

Is the smoke and heat a concern for people who don't have any of these conditions?

对于没有这些症状的人来说，烟雾和高温是一个问题吗?

Well, short-term exposure to the particulates from the forest fires is manageable, doctors tell me.

医生告诉我，短期接触森林大火产生的微粒是可控的。

And air quality is supposed to start improving tomorrow in many parts of the country.

预计明天全美许多地区的空气质量将开始改善。

But Dr. Kalhan says when the air quality index is at 200, it's the equivalent of smoking about a half pack of cigarettes.

但卡尔汉医生表示，当空气质量指数为200时，肺部相当于抽了半包烟。

And that's not likely to harm someone one time. But what if these exposures keep coming and coming, he asks.

一次不太可能对人的健康有影响。但他问道，如果不断接触这些物质会怎么样呢?

If the frequency of those days increase or if the exposure occurs when the person is younger, spends more time outdoors, then it probably has more long-term impacts on health and creates, you know, a true public health problem that we need to understand.

如果这些日子的接触频率增加，如果花更多时间在户外的年轻人接触到这些物质，那么，这可能会对健康产生更长期的影响，产生一个我们需要去了解的真正的公共卫生问题。

He's actually starting a big national study to examine how smoke and other environmental factors can impact millennials' lung health.

实际上，他正在启动一项全国性的大型研究，研究烟雾和其他环境因素如何影响千禧一代的肺部健康。