美国国家公共电台 NPR Do U.S. Troops Risk Brain Injury When They Fire Heavy Weapons?

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Battlefield weapons have been getting smaller and more powerful as technology has improved. But now the military is trying to figure out whether some modern weapons actually pose a danger to troops. NPR's Jon Hamilton reports that these portable weapons are so powerful that just being near one of them when it's fired can rattle¹ the brain.

JON HAMILTON, BYLINE²: The Army is about to expand its use of a Swedish weapon called the Carl Gustaf. It looks like a bazooka. It can be carried by a single soldier.

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UNIDENTIFIED MAN: All right. Ready to fire.

HAMILTON: And as this military training video shows, it can blow up a tank.

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UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Backblast area clear?

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HAMILTON: A single round for the Carl Gustaf can weigh nearly 10 pounds. The shell leaves the barrel at more than 500 miles per hour. And as it fires, the weapon directs an explosive burst of hot gases out the back of the barrel. Troops take positions to the side of the weapon for safety. Even so, they get hit by powerful blast waves. In a video made by the military, here's how one Army gunner in Afghanistan described the experience.

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UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: Whenever you shoot it and it goes off, it feels like you get punched in your whole body. Like, the blast bounces off the ground, and it overwhelms you.

HAMILTON: During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military realized that the blast wave from a roadside bomb could injure the brain without leaving a scratch. And they began to wonder whether repeated blasts from a weapon like the Carl Gustaf might do the same thing. Louise Slaughter³, a congresswoman from upstate New York, is a member of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force.

LOUISE SLAUGHTER: With the use of the Carl Gustaf, I was told that one soldier that used it - his ears bled. Obviously, we have to know what kind of damage is that doing to their soldiers in training and in the battlefield.

HAMILTON: The military says it also wants to know whether firing a weapon could injure a service member's brain. They've already found hints that it might. In Afghanistan, the Army equipped thousands of troops with coin-sized sensors⁴ worn on the head and shoulders. These blast gauges⁶, made by a company in Slaughter's district, were designed to measure the intensity⁷ of a blast from a roadside bomb. But they also revealed worrisome levels of blast exposure among troops who were merely firing certain heavy weapons.

Last year, the military pulled the blast gauges from wide use, saying they hadn't helped detect brain injuries. Slaughter thinks that was a mistake.

SLAUGHTER: I don't understand the Pentagon's circular argument that they aren't using the gauges that they have already purchased because they don't have the data to prove how effective they are. But it doesn't take a great brain to understand you will not get the data if you don't use the gauges.

HAMILTON: The military declined several requests for an interview about the blast gauge⁵ program and the risks from firing weapons. But an Army spokesperson did respond to questions in an email. She said that the Department of Defense⁸ is still using blast gauges in research studies, including some that look at exposure from firing weapons.

Laila Zai is a scientist at Applied⁹ Research Associates, a private company hired by the military to help figure out the link between blast exposure and traumatic brain injury. She says some service members have reported concussion-like symptoms after repeatedly firing heavy weapons.

LAILA ZAI: The reason that these studies are being done is because at some point someone has said, I don't feel quite right.

HAMILTON: But it's really tricky¹⁰ to turn these anecdotes¹¹ into usable data. Even results of the Army's own blast gauge program in Afghanistan are hard to interpret because there were so many variables on the battlefield, so Zai has been working with a researcher from the Navy.

ZAI: What he's doing is he's putting sensors on people undergoing shoulder-mounted weapons training.

HAMILTON: The sensors measure the force of a blast, known as overpressure.

ZAI: And he's looking to see if the overpressure generated by various training scenarios¹² ever overwhelms the threshold of safety.

HAMILTON: It's all part of a five-year, $30 million effort run by the Office of Naval¹³ Research. The goal is to help the military figure out how much blast exposure is too much. Last year, a different military study showed that firing heavy weapons could temporarily impair¹⁴ learning and memory. Congresswoman Slaughter says now the military needs to find out whether these short-term effects can lead to long-term injuries for service members.

SLAUGHTER: And if we can save them from a lifetime of brain damage, for heaven's sakes, it's our obligation to do it.

HAMILTON: Sweden, the home of the Carl Gustaf, isn't waiting for definitive¹⁵ science. Troops there who train with the weapon have a strict limit on the number of rounds they can fire each day. Jon Hamilton, NPR News.

1 rattle   

v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓

参考例句：

• The baby only shook the rattle and laughed and crowed.孩子只是摇着拨浪鼓，笑着叫着。
• She could hear the rattle of the teacups.她听见茶具叮当响。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 slaughter   

n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀

参考例句：

• I couldn't stand to watch them slaughter the cattle.我不忍看他们宰牛。
• Wholesale slaughter was carried out in the name of progress.大规模的屠杀在维护进步的名义下进行。

4 sensors   

n.传感器，灵敏元件( sensor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were more than 2000 sensors here. 这里装有两千多个灵敏元件。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Significant changes have been noted where sensors were exposed to trichloride. 当传感器暴露在三氯化物中时，有很大变化。 来自辞典例句

5 gauge   

v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器

参考例句：

• Can you gauge what her reaction is likely to be?你能揣测她的反应可能是什么吗？
• It's difficult to gauge one's character.要判断一个人的品格是很困难的。

6 gauges   

n.规格( gauge的名词复数 )；厚度；宽度；标准尺寸v.（用仪器）测量( gauge的第三人称单数 )；估计；计量；划分

参考例句：

• A thermometer gauges the temperature. 温度计可测量温度。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The fuel gauges dropped swiftly. 燃料表指针迅速下降。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

8 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

9 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

10 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

11 anecdotes   

n.掌故，趣闻，轶事( anecdote的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• amusing anecdotes about his brief career as an actor 关于他短暂演员生涯的趣闻逸事
• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman. 他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 scenarios   

n.[意]情节；剧本；事态；脚本

参考例句：

• Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者，根据一些事故解说，石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样，我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

13 naval   

adj.海军的，军舰的，船的

参考例句：

• He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
• The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。

14 impair   

v.损害，损伤；削弱，减少

参考例句：

• Loud noise can impair your hearing.巨大的噪音有损听觉。
• It can not impair the intellectual vigor of the young.这不能磨灭青年人思想活力。

15 definitive   

adj.确切的，权威性的；最后的，决定性的

参考例句：

• This book is the definitive guide to world cuisine.这本书是世界美食的权威指南。
• No one has come up with a definitive answer as to why this should be so.至于为什么该这样，还没有人给出明确的答复。