VOA标准英语2011--Breathing Emergencies Decline After Iris

Breathing Emergencies Decline After Irish Smoking Ban

A national smoking ban in Ireland has led to reduced hospital emergency admissions for respiratory ailments¹. It's the latest evidence of the health benefits of tobacco control.
Seven years ago, Ireland introduced a nationwide ban on smoking at work. Previous studies looked at the impact on other medical issues and found, for example, fewer hospitalizations for heart attacks and other coronary emergencies. But Imran Sulaiman of the Galway University Hospitals found a gap in the existing research.
"There's a lot of data that's already been [collected] regarding smoking bans and coronary artery² disease, but there's been nothing reported on its effect on pulmonary disease," he says.
So Sulaiman and his colleagues dug into nationwide records of emergency hospital admissions in 2002 and 2003 - before the smoking ban went into effect - and compared those numbers with admissions in 2005 and 2006.
The researchers found that emergency, lung-related hospitalizations went down significantly, "particularly in patients with asthma³, and particularly in patients with pneumonia⁴, mainly in the younger age group, and mainly in men," typically in their 20s.
The researchers controlled for other factors - such as weather and influenza⁵ outbreaks - that might have affected⁶ the number of breathing emergencies.
Sulaiman says smoking rates went down slightly in Ireland after the ban went into effect in 2004, but this study more closely tracks the three-quarters of Irish adults who do not smoke. In many cases, their tobacco exposure went down dramatically after smoking was banned from the workplace.

1 ailments   

疾病（尤指慢性病），不适( ailment的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His ailments include a mild heart attack and arthritis. 他患有轻度心脏病和关节炎。
• He hospitalizes patients for minor ailments. 他把只有小病的患者也送进医院。

2 artery   

n.干线，要道；动脉

参考例句：

• We couldn't feel the changes in the blood pressure within the artery.我们无法感觉到动脉血管内血压的变化。
• The aorta is the largest artery in the body.主动脉是人体中的最大动脉。

3 asthma   

n.气喘病，哮喘病

参考例句：

• I think he's having an asthma attack.我想他现在是哮喘病发作了。
• Its presence in allergic asthma is well known.它在过敏性气喘中的存在是大家很熟悉的。

4 pneumonia   

n.肺炎

参考例句：

• Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
• Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。

5 influenza   

n.流行性感冒，流感

参考例句：

• They took steps to prevent the spread of influenza.他们采取措施
• Influenza is an infectious disease.流感是一种传染病。

6 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。