VOA慢速英语:Are Smartphone Apps Encouraging Young Smokers?

Public health officials say tobacco companies are avoiding a worldwide ban on advertising tobacco products to young people by using smartphone applications, or “apps.” The officials say some of the apps are designed to persuade young people to start smoking.
公共卫生官员说，烟草公司通过使用智能手机应用程序，避免向年轻人宣传烟草产品的全球广告禁令。有关官员称，一些应用程序的目的是说服年轻人开始吸烟。

Armando Peruga works for the World Health Organization’s Tobacco-Free Initiative. He recently discovered one such pro-smoking app online.
Armando Peruga为世界卫生组织下的无烟草行动项目工作。最近，他发现了这样一个支持吸烟的应用程序在线。

 “I was taken aback by a game that is called ‘Puff, Puff, Pass,’ which is (an) application that’s a cartoon game where the user must click on game characters to order them to smoke and pass the cigarette to the other characters. And the user collects points if he or she continues passing the cigarette in the same sequence at a fast pace. Obviously, that can only be directed at very young kids.”
“我被一个叫做‘Puff, Puff, Pass'的游戏吓了一跳。这是一个卡通游戏应用程序，用户必须点击游戏角色命令他们吸烟，并将香烟传递给其它游戏角色。如果用户以同样的顺序快速传递香烟就能获得游戏点数。显然，这是直接针对非常年轻的孩子们。”

Millions of people around the world now have smartphones, and many of them are children.
目前，世界各地数以百万计的人拥有智能手机，其中许多是儿童。

Researchers in Australia searched the Apple and Android app stores using words like “smoke,” “smoking,” “cigar,” “cigarette,” and “tobacco.” They found more than one hundred apps linked to those words. The apps included not only games and social utilities, but advertisements for tobacco products, and information about where the products could be purchased.
澳大利亚的研究人员搜索了苹果和安卓应用商店中如 “烟”、“吸烟”、“雪茄”、“香烟”和“烟草”一类的词语，他们发现有一百多个与此相关的应用程序。这些应用程序不仅包含游戏和社会设施，还包括香烟产品广告，以及哪里可以购买这些产品的信息。

Forty-two of the apps were from the Android store. Together, they had been downloaded six million times.
其中42个应用程序来自安卓商店，它们总共被下载了600万次。

The most popular Android apps were those that simulate smoking. The apps let users smoke a virtual cigarette and produce visual effects of the cigarette being burned and smoked. Some of the simulation apps claim to aid in quiting smoking.
最流行的是那些模拟吸烟的安卓应用程序。这些应用程序让用户吸食虚拟香烟，并产生香烟燃烧和被吸食的视觉效果。其中一些模拟应用程序宣称是为了帮助戒烟。

Armando Peruga said the names of some of the apps are very misleading.
Armando Peruga称，一些应用程序的名字存在很大的误导。

“These apps -- which are, the study identified about a hundred seven of these pro-smoking apps -- are classified under names such as health and fitness and just…games which are very misleading, and anyone can access, especially young kids.”
“研究发现的这107个赞成吸烟的应用程序被分类在健康、健身和游戏等目录下，这是很大的误导。同时任何人都可以访问这些目录，特别是年幼的孩子。”

The Australian researchers believe these pro-smoking smartphone applications violate the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The convention bans all advertising and promotion of tobacco products in the media, in countries that have signed the treaty. The researchers say the app stores have a moral -- and possibly legal -- responsibility to honor the convention and other laws that ban the advertising of tobacco products to young people.
澳大利亚研究人员认为，这些亲吸烟的智能手机应用程序违反了世界卫生组织烟草控制框架公约。该公约禁止在已经签署该条约的国家的媒体上做任何烟草产品的广告及推广。研究人员称，应用程序商店有道义和潜在法律责任履行公约及其它禁止向青年人展示烟草产品广告的法律。

The report on pro-tobacco smartphone applications was published in the journal Tobacco Control.
亲烟草智能手机应用程序的报告发表在《烟草控制》杂志上。