最近因COVID-19新冠病毒肺炎蔓延，引發討論「 Pandemic」（「全球大流行」）與「Epidemic」（「疫情流行」）的防疫差別？ 倒是歐洲心臟學會在2020年3月3日出版的《心血管研究》雜誌上發表的一項研究，指出空氣污染縮短了人們的壽命，其影響遠遠超過戰爭和其他形式的暴力、寄生蟲、蟲媒傳染病如瘧疾，以及愛滋病、吸菸等，研究團隊稱人類正面臨空氣污染的「全球大流行」（world is facing an air pollution “pandemic”）。研究人員說，因著不同的空氣污染源，人們的壽命平均縮短了將近三年（Researchers say people’s lives are shortened by an average of nearly three years from different sources of air pollution）。
圖示全球各地一年因空氣污染死亡的人數統計（人/1000平方公里）。全球每年因空污死亡約2億3千3百萬人。Image: Heat map showing years of life lost each year from air pollution. (Credit: Cardiovascular Research)
研究人員使用一種新的評估模式，了解各種空氣污染源跟死亡率的關連，估計2015年因空氣污染導致全球有880萬人過早死亡，平均縮短了將近三年壽命。
相比之下，吸菸使平均壽命縮短了2.2年（720萬死亡例），愛滋病減少了0.7年（100萬死亡例），蟲媒傳染病如瘧疾等由蚊子，蝨子和跳蚤傳播的疾病減少了0.6年（600,000死亡例），而各種形式的暴力（包括戰爭）則減少0.3年（530,000死亡例）。
研究人員研究了空氣污染對下呼吸道感染、慢性阻塞性肺病、肺癌、心臟病、導致中風的腦血管疾病以及其他未明示非傳染性疾病，其中包括高血壓和糖尿病。他們發現，心血管疾病（併心臟病和腦血管疾病）是空氣污染造成壽命減短的最大病因，約佔因空污造成死亡人數的43％。
他們還發現，不計非洲和南亞等低收入國家五歲以下兒童的死亡數，空氣污染更影響老年人的壽命，全球約75％的空氣污染死亡案例發生在60歲以上的人。
這是國際首次依據年齡、疾病類型及各個國家和地區的平均壽命來推估空氣污染影響壽命的研究。
Using a new method of modelling the effects of various sources of air pollution on death rates, the researchers estimated that globally air pollution caused an extra 8.8 million premature deaths a year in 2015. This represents an average shortening of life expectancy of nearly three years for all persons worldwide.
In comparison, tobacco smoking shortens life expectancy by an average of 2.2 years (7.2 million deaths), HIV/AIDS by 0.7 years (1 million deaths), diseases like malaria that are carried by parasites or insects such as mosquitoes, ticks and fleas by 0.6 years (600,000 deaths), and all forms of violence (including deaths in wars) by 0.3 years (530,000 deaths).
The researchers looked at the effect of air pollution on six categories of disease: lower respiratory tract infection, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, heart disease, cerebrovascular disease leading to stroke, and other, non-communicable diseases, which include conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes. They found that cardiovascular diseases (heart disease and cerebrovascular disease combined) are responsible for the greatest proportion of shortened lives from air pollution: 43% of the loss in life expectancy worldwide.
They also found that air pollution had a greater effect on shortening lives in older people, with the exception of deaths in children aged under five in low income countries, such as Africa and South Asia. Globally, about 75% of deaths attributed to air pollution occur in people aged over 60 years.
This is the first study to show the effects of air pollution on deaths according to age, type of disease and also its effect on life expectancy at the level of individual countries and regions.
原文報導請點閱：The world faces an air pollution ‘pandemic’
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