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【bio-news】对空气净化益处的低估
By Erik Stokstad
ScienceNOW Daily News
27 September 2006
When officials at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced last week that they were not tightening an air quality standard for soot, they cited scientific uncertainty (ScienceNOW, 21 September). Yet later that day, the agency quietly released a report in which outside experts agree that cleaning up soot would prevent substantial numbers of premature deaths. Environmentalists say the report will strengthen future lawsuits challenging the standard as too lax.
EPA has attracted controversy over its air quality standards for particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM 2.5). The agency proposed a new legal limit in December, which would reduce the average daily amount of soot and other particles allowed in the air. But the standard, which was finalized last week, kept the average annual amount at the existing standard of 15 micrograms per cubic meter （mcg/m³）－rather than lowering it to 13 to 14 mcg/m³ as recommended by the agency's own scientific advisory committee (ScienceNOW, 21 December 2005).
The new report is an outgrowth of a recommendation in a 2002 study by the National Academies' National Research Council that EPA consult outside experts about scientific uncertainties. A panel of 12 experts reviewed more than 100 studies before concluding that strengthening the standard by 1 mcg/m³ would decrease overall adult mortality by 0.7 to 1.6%.
"There was a pretty tight consensus," says Morton Lippmann of New York University School of Medicine (NYUSM), who participated in the review. Tightening the standard could prevent 10,000 to 12,000 deaths a year, says George Thurston, a NYUSM epidemiologist and another expert on the review.
"This is highly damning information contradicting the administrator's decision," says John Walke of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C. Jana Milford of Environmental Defense in Boulder, Colorado, says the document shows that EPA annual standard is "contrary to law, an abuse of discretion, and arbitrary and capricious." EPA says the expert review was supposed to be used for characterizing uncertainty not for setting the soot standard.
Related sites
EPA fact sheet on particulate matter
The new EPA standards
The Expert Review 这个好像暂时没有人来管啊，我把它处理了吧。
Underestimating the Benefits of Clean Air
低估净化空气的益处（这样翻有点生硬，不过我没有想出好的，对...好像跟这么翻差不多）
When officials at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced last week that they were not tightening an air quality standard for soot, they cited scientific uncertainty (ScienceNOW, 21 September). Yet later that day, the agency quietly released a report in which outside experts agree that cleaning up soot would prevent substantial numbers of premature deaths. Environmentalists say the report will strengthen future lawsuits challenging the standard as too lax.
当环境保护机构的官员在上周宣布他们没有强化针对煤烟的空气质量标准时，他们所引述的资料科学性不够可靠。在此之后，该机构悄悄的发布了一份报告，报告中外界专家同意了净化煤烟确实可以减少未成年人的死亡数目
环境学家说这份报告在将来可能引发更多质疑这个标准过于松弛的诉讼。
EPA has attracted controversy over its air quality standards for particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM 2.5). The agency proposed a new legal limit in December, which would reduce the average daily amount of soot and other particles allowed in the air. But the standard, which was finalized last week, kept the average annual amount at the existing standard of 15 micrograms per cubic meter （mcg/m³）－rather than lowering it to 13 to 14 mcg/m³ as recommended by the agency's own scientific advisory committee (ScienceNOW, 21 December 2005).
环境保护机构的有关直径小于2.5微米的颗粒的空气质量标准已经招致了诸多反对意见。他们在12月份提出了一项新的法律限制，这将有助于减少每日煤烟以及其它允许的颗粒的排放数量。但是在上周定稿的这个标准依然保留了以往的15微克每立方米的旧标准，而不是把它降低为他们机构自己的科学顾问委员会所提出的13到14微克每立方米。
The new report is an outgrowth of a recommendation in a 2002 study by the National Academies' National Research Council that EPA consult outside experts about scientific uncertainties. A panel of 12 experts reviewed more than 100 studies before concluding that strengthening the standard by 1 mcg/m³ would decrease overall adult mortality by 0.7 to 1.6%.
这份新的报告是源于国家科学院研究委员会在2002年所进行的一项研究中所提出建议的产物，环保机构针对科学性的不确定咨询了外界专家。一个由12位专家组成的小组调研了超过100项研究的结果，最终得出结论是如果对标准进行强化，每降低1微克每立方米的排放量，相应的可以减少全体成年人百分之0.7到1.6的致死率
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-08-13 17:12
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