科学美国人60秒 更安全的室内空气，人们希望在飞机和火车上戴口罩

搜索

复制

Safer Indoor Air, and People Want Masks on Planes and Trains

更安全的室内空气，人们希望在飞机和火车上戴口罩

Tanya Lewis: Hi, and welcome to COVID, Quickly, a Scientific American podcast series.

Josh Fischman: This is your fast-track update on the COVID pandemic. We bring you up to speed on the science behind the most urgent questions about the virus and the disease. We demystify the research and help you understand what it really means.

坦娅·刘易斯：大家好，欢迎收看美国科学播客系列节目《快速传播新冠病毒》。

乔希·费斯曼：这是你们关于新冠疫情的快速更新。我们将向您介绍有关病毒和疾病的最紧迫问题背后的科学。我们揭开研究的神秘面纱，帮助你理解它的真正含义。

Lewis: I’m Tanya Lewis.

Fischman: I’m Josh Fischman.

刘易斯：我是坦娅·刘易斯。

我是乔希·费斯曼。

Lewis: And we’re Scientific American’s senior health editors.  Today, we’re going to talk about reducing infections by improving indoor air quality…

Fischman: And how a lot of people approve of masks on planes, and other precautions, despite what you see on the news.

刘易斯：我们是《科学美国人》的高级健康编辑。今天，我们将讨论通过改善室内空气质量来减少感染…

费奇曼：还有很多人是如何认可飞机上的口罩和其他预防措施的，不管你在新闻上看到了什么。

Fischman: You and I talk a lot about how COVID spreads through the air and the importance of masks. But when it comes to stopping airborne infections, there’s a longer-term solution that doesn’t require a filter across your face, isn’t there?

费奇曼：你和我经常谈论新冠病毒如何在空气中传播，以及口罩的重要性。但是，在阻止空气传播感染方面，有一个长期的解决方案，不需要在脸上安装过滤器，不是吗？

Lewis: Absolutely. It’s time we started improving the quality of the air inside our buildings. We spend 90 percent of our time indoors, but we devote very little effort to making that air healthy for human beings. As Linsey Marr, an aerosol¹ expert at Virginia Tech, put it, “We don’t rely on people to filter their water individually. We provide clean, safe drinking water.”

刘易斯：当然。现在是我们开始改善建筑物内空气质量的时候了。我们90%的时间都待在室内，但我们几乎没有花多少精力让室内空气对人类健康。正如弗吉尼亚理工大学气溶胶专家林西·马尔（Linsey Marr）所说，“我们不依赖人们单独过滤水。我们提供清洁、安全的饮用水。”

Fischman: Good point. Why don’t we care as much about indoor air? It’s not like we just realized that breathing is important for health.

费奇曼：说得好。我们为什么不关心室内空气呢？我们并不是刚刚意识到呼吸对健康很重要。

Lewis: It’s more of a recent building design issue. In the last 40 years or so, we started sealing things up more, in the name of energy efficiency. But though tighter seals reduce AC or heating bills, they also make it easier for the virus that causes COVID and other germs to accumulate in the air, making us sick.

刘易斯：这更像是最近的建筑设计问题。在过去40年左右的时间里，我们以能源效率的名义开始更多地封闭东西。但是，虽然更紧密的密封可以减少空调或取暖费用，但它们也更容易让导致新冠病毒和其他细菌在空气中积聚，使我们生病。

Fischman: So in solving one problem, we created another. Shouldn’t there be standards for indoor air quality?

费奇曼：所以在解决一个问题时，我们创造了另一个问题。室内空气质量不应该有标准吗？

Lewis: Well there are—kind of. A professional engineering society called ASHRAE sets standards for all our buildings—including offices, schools, and restaurants. But these rules are mostly meant to protect equipment, not people.

刘易斯：嗯，有一些。一个名为ASHRAE的专业工程协会为我们所有的建筑制定标准，包括办公室、学校和餐厅。但这些规则主要是为了保护设备，而不是人。

Fischman: OK, I’m less important than a refrigerator. It really sounds like it’s time for an update.

Lewis: Haha, yes it is. In fact, the Biden Administration recently launched a push to improve the quality of air inside buildings. It has three pillars: ventilation, filtration and air disinfection. Ventilation is basically how much fresh outdoor air you bring in. The more fresh air, the more it dilutes² any virus hanging around.

费奇曼：好吧，我没有冰箱那么重要。听起来是时候更新了。

刘易斯：哈哈，是的。事实上，拜登政府最近发起了一项改善建筑物内空气质量的行动。它有三个支柱：通风、过滤和空气消毒。通风量基本上是指你带来多少新鲜的室外空气。新鲜空气越多，就越能稀释周围的病毒。

Fischman: Good. Then pillar two is filtration. That’s using high-quality air filters to remove virus particles. The filters have names like HEPA and MERV, and the “E” in both stands for “efficiency.”

Lewis: Right. And finally, there’s air disinfection—for example, using UV light to “kill” or inactivate³ a virus in the air. The Biden administration put out a practical guide for building managers and anyone who owns a home or business and wants to upgrade the air quality. We’ll put a link in the transcript⁴.

费奇曼：很好。第二支柱是过滤。这就是使用高质量的空气过滤器来去除病毒颗粒。过滤器的名字有HEPA和MERV，两者中的“E”代表“效率”

刘易斯：对。最后，还有空气消毒，例如，使用紫外线“杀死”或灭活空气中的病毒。拜登政府为建筑经理和任何拥有房屋或企业并希望提升空气质量的人提供了一份实用指南。我们会在成绩单上添加链接。

Fischman: This all sounds good on paper, Tanya. But also expensive. If I owned a small business, or ran a school, I’d worry that I couldn’t afford to do all these things. Would I have to foot the bill myself?

费奇曼：这在纸上听起来不错，坦娅。但也很贵。如果我拥有一家小企业，或者经营一所学校，我会担心我负担不起所有这些事情。我得自己付账吗？

Lewis: Great question. The American Rescue Plan contains $122 billion for schools and $350 billion for state, local, and Tribal⁵ governments to support some of these improvements. But Congress doesn’t want to keep funding the pandemic response, so it seems unlikely there will be a lot more federal money allocated⁶ for this. Fortunately, some businesses that have the resources are taking it upon themselves to upgrade their air quality.

刘易斯：好问题。美国救援计划包括1220亿美元用于学校，3500亿美元用于州、地方和部落政府，以支持其中的一些改进。但国会不想继续为大流行应对提供资金，因此似乎不太可能有更多的联邦资金用于此。幸运的是，一些拥有资源的企业正在承担起提升空气质量的责任。

Fischman: OK, that gets us part way there. There’s an argument, too, that this is not just good health. It’s good business as well, right?

费奇曼：好吧，这让我们走了一段路。还有一种观点认为，这不仅仅是健康问题。生意也不错，对吧？

Lewis: Yes—the benefits of fresh air go beyond COVID, and even other respiratory diseases. Joseph Allen, director of the Healthy Buildings program at Harvard’s school of public health, says it’s just good business sense. Studies have shown that poorly ventilated places actually affect cognition and mental performance.

刘易斯：是的，新鲜空气的好处不仅限于新冠肺炎，甚至还有其他呼吸道疾病。哈佛大学公共卫生学院健康建筑项目主任约瑟夫·艾伦（Joseph Allen）表示，这只是良好的商业意识。研究表明，通风不良的地方实际上会影响认知和心理表现。

Fischman: We all know how awful it feels to sit in a stuffy⁷ conference room.

Lewis: Exactly. And we all deserve to breathe clean, healthy air.

费奇曼：我们都知道坐在闷热的会议室里有多难受。

刘易斯：没错。我们都应该呼吸干净健康的空气。

Lewis: Last week, a judge in Florida struck down the mask mandate⁸ for airplanes and public transportation. News and social media were filled with photos of people gleefully discarding their masks.

刘易斯：上周，佛罗里达州的一名法官撤销了对飞机和公共交通的口罩授权。新闻和社交媒体上充斥着人们高兴地摘下口罩的照片。

Fischman: I also saw news videos of people cheering on planes. But, like many news stories during the pandemic, those videos give the wrong impression.

费奇曼：我还看到人们在飞机上欢呼的新闻视频。但是，就像大流行期间的许多新闻故事一样，这些视频给人留下了错误的印象。

Lewis: They actually represent the minority of Americans, not the majority.

刘易斯：他们实际上代表的是少数美国人，而不是大多数人。

Fischman: Yeah, it turns out most people want masks?on planes, trains, and public transit¹⁰. 59 percent of people, in fact. That’s according to a poll by the National Opinion Research Center and the AP. The poll sampled about 1000 Americans, of various ideologies¹¹ and backgrounds. They got the question right before the judge ruled against the mandate, and before the Biden Administration said it would appeal the ruling.

费奇曼：是的，事实证明大多数人都想要面具?在飞机、火车和公共交通上。事实上，59%的人。这是根据国家民意研究中心和美联社的一项民意调查得出的。这项民意调查对大约1000名美国人进行了抽样调查，他们来自不同的意识形态和背景。他们在法官裁定这项任务无效之前，以及拜登政府表示将对裁决提出上诉之前，就得到了这个问题。

Lewis: More than half, huh? The loudest people get the most attention, I guess. But the majority of people in this country actually do support taking some public health precautions. You hear about people who don’t trust vaccines¹², but if you look at the numbers: 66 percent of Americans have gotten fully⁹ vaccinated¹³. That’s 219 million.

刘易斯：超过一半，是吗？我想，声音最大的人得到最多的关注。但是这个国家的大多数人确实支持采取一些公共卫生预防措施。你听说过不信任疫苗的人，但如果你看看数字：66%的美国人已经接种了疫苗。这是2.19亿。

Fischman: And the number of doses given out per day doubled this month compared with March, to almost 500,000. Big name athletes get headlines for refusing shots, but in the NBA more than 90 percent of players get them. In the airline industry, United said 99.5 percent of employees did so.

费奇曼：本月每天发放的剂量比3月份增加了一倍，达到近50万剂。大牌运动员因拒绝投篮而成为头条新闻，但在NBA，超过90%的球员都会这样做。在航空业，联合航空表示99.5%的员工这样做。

Lewis: Videos capture the shouting. But the data show the caring, and that’s something to keep in mind.

刘易斯：视频捕捉到了叫喊声。但是数据显示了他们的关心，这是需要记住的。

Lewis: Now you’re up to speed. Thanks for joining us. Our show is edited by Tulika Bose.

刘易斯：现在你跟上速度了。谢谢你加入我们。我们的节目由Tulika Bose编辑。

Fischman: Come back in two weeks for the next episode of COVID, Quickly! And check out SciAm.com for updated and in-depth COVID news.

费奇曼：两周后再来看新冠肺炎的下一集，快点！看看SciAm。com获取最新和深入的新冠病毒新闻。

1 aerosol   

n.悬浮尘粒，气溶胶，烟雾剂，喷雾器

参考例句：

• They sprayed aerosol insect repellent into the faces of police.他们将喷雾驱虫剂喷在了警察的脸上。
• Aerosol particles affect visibility,climate,and our health and quality of life.气溶胶对大气能见度、气候变化以及人类健康等有重要影响。

2 dilutes   

稀释，冲淡( dilute的第三人称单数 )； 削弱，使降低效果

参考例句：

• On the plus side, wind dilutes and scatters air pollutants, and carries pollen. 从好处来说，风能稀释和驱散空气中的污染物质，传播花粉。
• Ubiquity might not be toxic to authenticity, but it certainly dilutes it. 普遍性或许不至于毒害原真性，但确实会削弱它。

3 inactivate   

v.使…不活跃

参考例句：

• We put bacteria in an environment at low temperature to inactivate them.我们将细菌置於低温的环境中使之失去活性。
• Food processing destroys some nutrients,but can also inactivate toxins and increase the availability of other nutrients.食物加工破坏一些营养物质，但也可以灭活毒素，并增加其他营养物质的可用性。

4 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

5 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

6 allocated   

adj. 分配的 动词allocate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The Ford Foundation allocated millions of dollars for cancer research. 福特基金会拨款数百万美元用于癌症研究。
• More funds will now be allocated to charitable organizations. 现在会拨更多的资金给慈善组织。

7 stuffy   

adj.不透气的，闷热的

参考例句：

• It's really hot and stuffy in here.这里实在太热太闷了。
• It was so stuffy in the tent that we could sense the air was heavy with moisture.帐篷里很闷热，我们感到空气都是潮的。

8 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

9 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

10 transit   

n.经过，运输；vt.穿越，旋转；vi.越过

参考例句：

• His luggage was lost in transit.他的行李在运送中丢失。
• The canal can transit a total of 50 ships daily.这条运河每天能通过50条船。

11 ideologies   

n.思想（体系）( ideology的名词复数 )；思想意识；意识形态；观念形态

参考例句：

• There is no fundamental diversity between the two ideologies. 这两种思想意识之间并没有根本的分歧。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Radical ideologies require to contrast to their own goodness the wickedness of some other system. 凡是过激的意识形态，都需要有另外一个丑恶的制度作对比，才能衬托出自己的善良。 来自辞典例句

12 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

13 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？