译者 解君
Mercury, lead, chromium and other toxic compounds, used in many industrial processes, rob years of healthy life from millions each year. Simple fixes could go far in solving the issue
在许多工业生产方法中，使用汞、铅、铬等其它有毒化合物，长期以来，他们每年夺去数百万人的健康生活。但是，其实利用简单的防范措施就能有效地解决这个问题。
By David Biello | November 10, 2011 | 11
作者：David Biello 发布时间：2011年11月10日
The price of gold affects more than global finances; it also drives the world's most toxic pollution problem, according to new research from the Blacksmith Institute, an environmental health group based in New York City. Miners in countries from across Africa and Southeast Asia use mercury to separate the precious metal from the surrounding rock and silt. To then separate the resulting amalgam of gold and mercury, heat must be applied to vaporize the mercury. Typically, heating occurs over an open gas flame, releasing the potent neurotoxic element into the atmosphere. What's more, the estimated 10 million to 20 million workers who mine for gold this way will all too often inhale the mercury, putting their health at profound risk.
铁匠研究所（Blacksmith Institude）总部位于伦敦，是一个环境卫生组织，据它的新近研究结果所说，黄金价格比金融市场的对人的影响还大，因为是它在推动激化着全球最恶劣的毒性污染问题。从非洲到东南亚，那里的矿工利用汞从环境中的岩石和淤泥中分离贵金属，然后加热使汞蒸发从金汞合金中分离出来。通常是在敞开的气火焰上加热，就把对神经有强烈毒害作用的元素释放到了环境当中。更为严重的是，估计有1000万至2000万的工人用这种方法炼金，他们都频繁地吸入汞，把健康置于严重的危险之中。
"Small-scale gold mining contributes to one third of the mercury released into the environment today," says physicist Stephan Robinson of Green Cross Switzerland—Blacksmith's partner in the research and ranking—or nearly as much as coal burning by power plants. "This is continuing to increase because of rising gold prices."
瑞士绿十字组织（Green Cross Switzerland）是铁匠研究所这项研究和排名工作的合作伙伴，它的一位物理学家Stephan Robinson说道：“当今被释放到环境中的汞有1/3是小型金矿造成的，也可以说接近和发电厂燃烧煤矿释放的汞一样多。由于金价仍在上升，污染还会加重。”
The researchers estimate that more than 3.5 million people suffer from mercury-related health effects as a result of such artisanal gold mining, making it the world's worst toxic pollution problem in terms of number of people affected.
研究人员估计这种手工炼金方式使超过350万人遭受和汞有关的健康问题，以受影响的人口数量计算，成为世界上最严重的有毒污染问题。
The toxic top 10:
10大最严重有毒污染（按受影响人数排名）：
1.Mercury pollution from gold mining (3.5 million people)
第一位：炼金造成的汞污染-350万
2.Lead pollution from industrial parks (nearly 3 million)
第二位：工业园造成的铅污染-接近300万
3.Pesticides from agriculture (more than 2.2. million)
第三位：农用杀虫剂-超过220万
4.Lead smelting (just under 2 million)
第四位：炼铅-接近200万
5.Chromium pollution from leather tanning (more than 1.8 million)
第五位：鞣革产生的铬污染-超过180万
6.Mercury residue from other mining (more than 1.5 million)
第六位：其他采矿业造成的汞残留物-超过150万
7.Lead pollution from mining (more than 1.2 million)
第七位：采矿业制造成的铅污染-超过120万人
8.Lead pollution from improper battery recycling (nearly one million)
第8位：电池不恰当回收造成的铅污染-接近100万
9.Arsenic in groundwater (at least 750,000)
第9位：含砷地下水-至少75万
10.Pesticide manufacturing and storage (more than 700,000).
第10位：杀虫剂的制造和存储-超过70万
Notably, groundwater arsenic is the only naturally occurring pollution problem—and it is in ninth place. Put together, arsenic, chromium, lead, mercury and pesticides are the leading causes of such toxic hot spots largely created by mining, metal smelting, chemical manufacture, agriculture, heavy industry, tanneries and waste disposal, among other activities.
显然，含砷地下水是唯一自然发生的污染问题，而且在第九位。整体看来，砷、铬、铅、汞、杀虫剂是造成这些有毒污染热点地区的主要原因，主要由采矿，熔炼金属，化学工厂，农业，重工业，鞣革厂，和废物弃置造成。
View a slide show of the world's worst toxic pollution problems
请看世界最严重有毒污染问题的图片说明：
ELEMENTAL MERCURY: The "quicksilver" pictured here in a miner's hand is used to bond to gold in a slurry. The gold–mercury amalgam is then heated, usually in the open air, exposing miners, their children and the world to vaporized mercury—a potent neurotoxic element that causes developmental disorders and affects the central nervous system.
汞元素：画面中矿工手上的“水银”放入泥浆中用来和金结合。然后加热金-汞化合物，通常是在户外加热的，矿工和他们的孩子们就暴露在汽化的水银当中，水银是强烈的毒害神经的元素，引起发展性疾病并影响中枢神经系统。
INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER: Concentrating wastewater in industrial parks allows for shared environmental controls—except, too often, such technology is not employed, like the wastewater from an industrial park flowing in an open drain (pictured). Lead from battery manufacture, smelting, leaded glass production as well as from pigments, paints, ceramics, glazes and e-waste all too often ends up in the environment as a result, where it causes development disorders in children, among other harmful health effects. For example, the Malir River in Karachi, Pakistan, boasts lead levels of 2,170 parts per billion, or 100 times higher than the health standard for irrigation water.
工业废水：对工业园区的污水进行集中处理可以对环境污染进行统一控制，但通常都没有使用集中处理的办法，就像图中展示的一个工业园用露天排水沟排放废水。来自电池制造厂的铅，还有来自熔炼、铅面玻璃制造，粉末颜料，绘画颜料，陶瓷制造，釉料，电子垃圾中的铅，最后通常都是排放到环境中去，导致那里的孩子除了引起有害的健康效应外，还患上了进行性疾病。例如，巴基斯坦卡拉奇的Malir河，铅含量高达每10亿含2170单位，或者说高出灌溉用水健康标准100倍。
PESTICIDE PROBLEM: Modern agriculture relies on pesticides, requiring the application of some two million metric tons annually on fields. Health effects in humans range from skin irritation, like that pictured here, to cancer. In addition, stockpiles of old, outdated pesticides such as DDT linger. An estimated six to nine million metric tons of such pesticides persist, often improperly stored. Illiteracy compounds the problem. "Even if we put some information on the pesticide containers themselves, [most users] will not understand," says physicist Stephan Robinson of Green Cross Switzerland. "Container management in pesticides is very important. Give to a farmer a new container of pesticides only if he gives you back the empty container," so he cannot use it for food storage.
杀虫剂问题：现代农业依赖杀虫剂，每年在农田上使用约200万公吨。对人体健康的影响范围从刺激皮肤（就如图中所示）到癌症。另外，还囤积着许多像DDT这样的陈年过时的杀虫剂。估计还有600万到900万公吨这样的杀虫剂，而且经常存放不当。缺乏知识加重了这个问题。瑞士绿色组织组物理学家Stephan Robinson说道“即使我们把一些信息放在了杀虫剂容器上，绝大多数使用者还是不理解。杀虫剂容器的管理非常重要。只有当他归还空容器的时候，再给他新的杀虫剂容器，”，这样他就不能用它存放食物了。
SMELTER: Some 3.8 million metric tons of lead are produced annually by separating it from mined ore using high heat. Too often such smelting, like that pictured here in Vietnam, happens in backyards without any pollution controls.
熔炉：每年约有380万公吨的铅是通过高温加热矿石的方法分离制造出来的。像图中的越南，通常这样的熔炼在是距离住所很近而且没有任何污染控制的地方进行的。
CARCINOGENIC CHROMIUM: Turning hides into leather in much of the world requires chromium, which in its hexavalent chemical form is a potent carcinogen. Clusters of such tanneries in countries such as Bangladesh produce vast quantities of toxic waste—200 separate tanneries in Hazaribagh combine to produce daily 7.7 million liters of wastewater and 88 million tons of solid waste, like the chromium sludge pictured here.
致癌的铬：世界上很多地方通过铬把兽皮制成皮革，铬在六价化学结构下是强烈致癌物。这种鞣革厂星布在世界各地，例如制造了大量的有毒废物孟加拉共和国，Hazaribagh地区的200个独立的鞣革厂合起来每天产生770万升废水和8800万吨固体废料，例如图中展示的铬渣堆。
LEADACID BATTERIES: These rechargeable batteries that help start most cars and trucks are composed of lead plates and sulfuric acid in a plastic case. Used batteries can be easily and cheaply recycled—but are also classified as "toxic waste" by the Basel Convention on hazardous waste and its disposal. The lead plates collect a layer of very fine lead oxide that is often simply shaken off, freeing it to be inhaled or otherwise absorbed into the body. Here a boy melts the recovered lead from a battery in an open container.
铅酸蓄电池：用来帮助发动轿车和卡车的可回收电池是由铅板和包在塑料包里的硫磺酸组成的。用过的电池很容易回收，回收价格也便宜-但是由于它的危险性和处置方式，它也被巴塞尔（Basel Convention）大会划分成“有毒废物”。铅板聚积着一层颗粒非常细的氧化铅，很容易被抖掉，因此释放出来后被人吸入或是被人体吸收。图中是一个男孩在敞开的容器中融化从电池中回收的铅。
ARSENIC AND WELL WATER: The world's worst toxic problems are not confined solely to industrial pursuits. Arsenic leaching into groundwater afflicts some 750,000 people, largely in south Asia. Here a child in Nepal drinks from a well containing water contaminated with arsenic, which can lead to abnormal heart beat, blood vessel damage and cancer, among other ill effects.
含砷的井水：世界上最严重的有毒问题不只局限与工业，浸析在地下水的砷影响了主要分布在南亚地区的约75万人。图中是尼泊尔的一个小孩从一口被砷污染的水井中汲水喝，会导致心率失常，血管损坏和癌症等其他疾病反应。
注：以上图片来自铁匠研究所
"We find lead all over the world, we find arsenic all over the world, chromium from tanneries all over the world," says Blacksmith's Bret Ericson, who managed the three-year project. "These are not large-scale, multinational corporations that are responsible for this pollution. Typically, it's low income, small-scale industries who have no emissions controls," often because these outdated industries remain unregulated.
铁匠研究所的Bret Ericson，领导了这个为期三年的项目，他说道：“我们在世界各地都发现了铅，在世界各地都发现了砷，在世界各地的鞣革厂都发现了铬，都不是大规模的，跨国公司要为这些污染负责。通常，这些都是低收入，小规模的产业，没有排放控制，”，常常是因为这些陈旧的产业一直以来缺乏管理。
All told, an expanded list that also includes specialized activities such as chemical manufacturers and uranium mining finds that at least 100 million people worldwide suffer health effects or die from such pollution. "We anticipate that number growing as we continue the inventory work," Ericson says.
还有一个包含像化学制造厂和铀矿开采这样的专业性活动的扩展列表，于是一共发现世界各地至少有1亿人的健康遭受影响或者是死于这些污染。Ericson说道：“在我们进行统计编制工作的同时，我们估计人数还在增长。”
The list derives from Blacksmith's survey of more than 2,000 toxic sites in 47 different countries in the developing world. The researchers then ranked the sites and problems by " disability life-adjusted year," or DALY, which measures both early death and the impact of pollution-related disease. In essence, one DALY equals "one year of 'healthy' life lost," the researchers wrote in the report released on November 9.
这个列表来自铁匠研究所在发展中国家中的47个国家的超过2000个有毒地点的研究结果。之后研究人员通过“残疾寿命修正年”，或者简称DALY的办法，将这些地址和问题分级，DALY计算过早死亡人数和与污染有关的疾病对人的影响。本质上，一个DALY等同于“一个本应健康的人失去的一年时间”，研究人员将结果写成报告于11月9日发布。
On average, those afflicted by the 10 worst pollution problems lost 12.7 DALYs of life. "It could mean that a person has 6.7 years with a serious disease as well as dying six years earlier than they otherwise would have," Ericson explains. But that ranges from nearly 24 years lost because of lead in industrial wastewater to just under three years lost from hexavalent chromium, the carcinogenic form of the element, from tanneries.
平均算来，那些被世界十大最严重污染问题折磨的人失去了生命中的12.7个DALY。Ericson解释道：“这意味着一个有6.7年是被疾病困扰，再加上早离开人世了7年，如果不是因为污染，他们还会多活7年。”。但DALY是有幅度的，从工业废水中的铅导致的接近24年到鞣革厂的致癌六价铬导致的接近3年不等。
"The chromium process is old, historic and efficient, and any other process is not likely to dominate," says environmental health scientist Jack Caravanos of the City University of New York School of Public Health, who consulted on the report and suggests chromium tanning for leather is not going away. "The goal is to install industrial waste treatment plants that collect the waste, as opposed to just discharging it. We have to live with hexavalent chromium and manage it at the source." Management tactics range from using bone charcoal to soak up the carcinogen and then dispose of it as toxic waste to chemically transforming hexavalent chromium to a more benign form.
Jack Caravanos是伦敦城市大学公共卫生学院的环境健康科学家，他翻阅了这个报告，并暗示用铬鞣革的方法不会消亡，他说道：“用铬鞣革的方法是古老但却历史悠久且高效的，还没与其他方法能取代它的地位”，努力的方向应该是设立工业废品处理厂来收集废物，而不应随意排放。人们不得不与六价铬共存并从源头上管理它。”。管理方法多样，简单的从使用骨炭吸收致癌物，然后把骨碳当作有毒废物扔掉，到高级的使用化学方法把六价铬转化成更良性的结构。
In many cases, however, the fixes are even simpler. "We have also seen people working in these mines ill-equipped, who do not wear gloves or very often shoes," Robinson notes. "The mines are located in the middle of villages, and children are playing on the waste rocks and tailings."
但是在很多情况下，我们看到的是更便宜的“方法”，Robinnson说道：“我们见过这些矿工中有些人装备简陋到没有手套甚至鞋也没穿。这些矿点位于村子中部，孩子们在废石和尾渣上玩耍。”。
The solution for the health impacts of artisanal gold mining is not to shut down the mines. "We're not interested in putting people out of work," Ericson says. It is instead a simple retort—essentially a still, or a sealed chamber, for heating the amalgam with an attached outlet tube for cooling and recapturing the mercury vapor. "They are built by local craftsmen using locally available materials and cost a few dollars," Robinson says. "It allows miners to recycle 99 percent of the mercury and saves their health, but also the health of the global community."
Ericson说道，解决金矿对健康影像的办法不是关闭矿点，“我们的目的不是让人们失业”，而只是从根本上进行一个简单的变化，在无风或是密封的房间加热金汞合金，配一个附属出气管用来冷却和回收水银蒸汽。“用当地的工人和当地的原料建造，花不了多少钱。这样，矿工们可以回收99%的水银，而且挽救了他们自己还有全人类的健康。”
There is one major source of toxic hot spots worldwide that does not appear on this list: oil production and its ancillary industries. "If the data existed, the petrochemical industry would be included as one of the top 10 pollution problems," the researchers wrote in the report, noting that processing one ton of crude oil results in 3.5 to five cubic meters of wastewater and three to five kilograms of sludge and other solid waste. They add that thousands of sites are "contaminated by the petrochemical industry, often in highly populated areas." But, because such sites tend to be neither abandoned nor defunct and are largely immune from regulatory control, the oil industry "falls out of the focus of what we're looking at," Ericson explains. "There's a lot of information on petrochemicals out there."
“石油生产和其附属产业”作为一个大的全球有毒热点来源没有出现在列表中，但研究人员在报告中指出：“如果有具体数据的话，石油化学工学将是10大污染问题中的第一名。”，还指出，制造一吨原油的过程中产生3.5立方米-5立方米的废水和3公斤-5公斤的油泥及其它固体废料。他们补充说道，成千上万的地区“被石油化学工业污染了，通常还是在人口密集的地区。”。Ericson解释，但是由于这些地点的发展趋势是既不会被放弃，也不会被废除，而且享有很多法定管制豁免权，所以石油产业“不在我们考虑范围之内，但事实上有很多关于石油化学的引起污染的资料。”。
In the future the Blacksmith Institute and Green Cross Switzerland hope to be able to measure the pollution burden of individual countries. In the meantime the environmental health groups note that the health impacts of pollution rival diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis but lacks similar systematic global systems to combat it. "The problems we're looking at are on a scale with other types of public health threats in these countries, like malaria," Ericson notes. "Toxic hot spots are a problem hiding in plain sight."
将来，铁匠研究所和瑞士绿十字组织期望能计算出每个国家的污染程度。同时，环境卫生组织指出，污染对人体健康的危害和艾滋病和肺结核一样严重，但却缺少和他们一样的用于对抗的体系化的全球系统。Ericson指出：“我们关注的有毒污染问题，在这些国家的对公共卫生威胁等级上，被划分在和像疟疾等其他疾病一样的等级上，就这样逃避的大众的视线。”
from 译言-每日精品译文推荐 http://article.yeeyan.org/view/237128/232428
