VOA健康报道2023 美国误食大麻食品的儿童人数激增（在线收听）

A study published recently found that the number of children who accidentally ate foods containing the drug marijuana increased over five years.

最近发表的一项研究发现，五年来，不小心食用了含有毒品大麻的食物的儿童数量有所增加。

Many areas in the United States have voted to make the drug marijuana legal during that time period.

在此期间，美国许多地区都投票支持大麻合法化。

More than 7,000 confirmed cases of children younger than six years old eating foods made with marijuana were reported to the nation's poison control centers between 2017 and 2021.

在2017年至2021年期间，美国毒品控制中心报告了7000多例6岁以下儿童食用含有大麻的食品的确诊病例。

Reported incidents increased from about 200 to more than 3,000 per year.

报告的事件从每年约200起增加到3000多起。

New research was published in a study in Pediatrics.

一项新的研究发表在《儿科学》杂志上。

The study found nearly one fourth of the children had to go to the hospital.

该研究发现，近四分之一的儿童不得不去医院。

Some became seriously ill.

有些儿童病得很严重。

Dr. Marit Tweet is a medical toxicologist, an expert on poisons, with the Southern Illinois School of Medicine.

Marit Tweet博士是南伊利诺伊大学医学院的医学毒理学家。

She led the study.

她领导了这项研究。

She said cases of children eating marijuana products, including sweets, are happening as more states permit medical and recreational marijuana use.

她说，随着越来越多的州允许医用和娱乐用大麻的使用，儿童食用包括糖果在内的大麻产品的案例正在发生。

Tweet called for parents to be more careful.

Tweet呼吁家长们要更加小心。

She also called for new laws to make marijuana products less appealing and less usable for children.

她还呼吁制定新法律，以降低大麻产品对儿童的吸引力和可用性。

Marijuana products often take the form of candies and foods.

大麻产品通常以糖果和食物的形式出现。

At least two states, Colorado and Washington, have such laws.

至少有两个州，科罗拉多州和华盛顿州，有这样的法律。

“When it’s in a candy form or cookies, people don’t think of it in the same way as household chemicals or other things a child could get into,” she said.

她说：“当大麻以糖果或饼干的形式出现时，人们认为它与家用化学品或其他孩子可能会接触到的东西不同”。

“But people should really be thinking of it as a medication.”

“但人们真的应该把它当作一种药物。”

Tweet and her co-researchers examined reports from the National Poison Data System.

Tweet和她的合作研究人员审查了美国毒品数据系统的报告。

It includes 55 poison control centers across the country.

它包括全国55个毒品控制中心。

More than half of the children affected were between the ages of two and three, the study showed.

研究显示，超过一半的受影响儿童年龄在2岁至3岁之间。

More than 90 percent got the marijuana food products, called edibles, at home.

超过90%的儿童在家中获得了大麻食品，即可食用产品。

“They’re the ones starting to explore and to get up and move around,” she said.

她说：“他们开始探索，站起来四处走动”。

Of more than 7,000 reports, researchers were able to follow the outcomes of nearly 5,000 cases.

在7000多份报告中，研究人员跟踪了近5000例病例的结果。

They found that nearly 600 children, or about eight percent, were admitted to critical care services, most often with depressed breathing or even coma.

他们发现，近600名儿童（约8%）被送进了重症监护室，其中大多数儿童呼吸困难，甚至昏迷。

Nearly 15 percent were admitted to non-critical care units and more than a third were seen in emergency rooms.

近15%的儿童被送进非重症监护病房，超过三分之一的儿童被送进急诊室。

Tiredness, breathing problems, fast heart rate, and vomiting were the most common symptoms.

疲劳、呼吸困难、心率加快和呕吐是最常见的症状。

Dr. Brian Shultz is an emergency doctor who works with children at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore.

布莱恩·舒尔茨医生是巴尔的摩约翰·霍普金斯医院的一名儿童急诊医生。

He said the results are not surprising.

他说，这一结果并不令人意外。

He formerly worked at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C.

他曾在华盛顿特区的美国国家儿童医院工作。

In the nation’s capital, he and his coworkers treated children who had eaten marijuana edibles “almost on a daily basis,” he said.

他说，在美国首都华盛顿，他和他的同事们“几乎每天”都在治疗吃过大麻的儿童。

Reports and hospitalizations increased during the last two years of the study, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

在这项研究的最后两年，即新冠疫情期间，报告和住院人数有所增加。

More children were at home, with more chances to find marijuana edibles, Tweet said.

Tweet说，更多的儿童待在家里，找到大麻食品的机会也更多。

With marijuana more widely legal, parents may have felt less stigma seeking help from poison centers and health care providers, she added.

她还说，随着大麻在更广泛的范围内合法化，家长向毒品中心和医疗保健服务提供者寻求帮助时可能不会感到那么羞耻。

I’m Jill Robbins.

吉尔·罗宾斯为您播报。