BP公司:慘綠慘綠

2013年04月26日 06:18 AM

BP失去綠色雄心

環境問題記者 斯蒂芬·萊希 為環境網站《中外對話》撰寫

石油巨頭BP公司曾經花費巨資告訴世界它正在“超越石油”走向可再生能源。但如今它卻在靜悄悄地“重返石油”，宣佈將其巨大的美國風能利益出售。

BP的這一決策是在可再生部門發展達到新高時做出的。
可再生能源（包括水能、風能、太陽能、生物能）已經占到了美國總發電量的近15%。近年來美國新建的燃煤電站只有一座，其餘150餘座的建設計劃的都已經被取消了。
人們日益認為核電風險過大、成本過高。而低成本天然氣的存在使得燃氣電站蓬勃發展。2013年頭三個月，美國新增發電能力的82%都是可再生能源。
2012年，美國所有新增發電能力中風電占了一半。奧巴馬總統在今年2月的“國情咨文”中也明確表示了對可再生能源的支持：“像中國這樣的國家都在全力以赴地發展清潔能源，美國也應該如此。”
在這樣一派大好的前景下，BP這個世界能源巨頭之一為什麽要賣掉期規模可觀的美國風能資產呢？
油氣依然是主要財源
BP堅守油氣事業，掙錢要比可再生能源更快。休斯敦大學的能源經濟學家愛德華·希爾斯告訴中外對話：“這是一個戰略性決策，可再生能源並非他們的核心業務。”
此外，BP需要大量資金來支付2010年“深水地平線”事故帶來的超過420億美元善後成本和罰款。這場事故造成11人死亡，並引發了美國歷史上最嚴重的海上漏油事件。另外，還有16萬人根據“‘深水地平線’經濟與財產損失結算”，要求賠償損失。
“最終的損失結算沒有上限……有可能達到1000億美元，”希爾斯說。
BP是世界上最大的國際油氣企業之一，在80多個國家進行經營，2012年其收入高達3750億美元。
BP的美國風能部門有16座風電場，總發電能力約為260萬千瓦。此外它還擁有處於不同開發階段的其它風電項目，預計總裝機容量為200萬千瓦。業界專家們估計BP在美國的風能部門價值為30到40億美元。
BP的一位發言人在接受“中外對話”採訪時說，這次出售的部分原因是“繼續努力成為更加專註的油氣企業，為公司在未來可持續增長的重新定位”。
這些重新專註於油氣的努力早在2009年就開始了，標志就是BP印度風電資產的出售。2011年，BP又出售了其太陽能部門，它在全世界已經擁有了160萬千瓦的發電能力。同一年，BP還放棄了蘇格蘭一個碳捕獲項目的投資。
不過，BP聲稱它會堅持替代能源的開發，如巴西和英國的乙醇生產。它也會繼續投入，“在美英同時打造行業領先的新生物燃料技術”。
2億美元“洗綠”
回想2000年，當時這個世界第二大的石油公司曾經信誓旦旦地宣稱正在對自身進行“徹底改造”，要“超越石油”。言猶在耳，但情勢已南轅北轍。
BP當年發起了一場耗資2億美元的著名公關運動，並且在可再生能源上投入70億美元巨資。通過收購其他太陽能企業，BP迅速成為一家大型太陽能公司。然而，與此同時它也在繼續加大投入，擴張油氣事業，因此被環保團體批為“洗綠”。
“我對BP出售風電部門的舉動感到吃驚，因為其經營相當成功。無論這一步有多麽消極，肯定會有人收購它的風電場。”來自加州的風能專家保羅·基普在一次採訪中說。
2012年美國的風電裝機量為1300萬千瓦，超過了2009年1000萬千瓦的紀錄。之所以會達到這個新高潮，主要是因為一項針對風電的課稅扣除優惠措施將在2012年底到期。不過，這項免稅措施在2013年又延長了一年。
“對BP和美國來說，對風能的巨大投資都將繼續。” 美國風能協會發言人艾倫·卡利說。
“這些風力發電機仍然在運轉，而且在未來許多年中都會繼續生產出清潔、低廉的本土風電。”
能源企業仍然力挺風電
“如果你看看那些風能領域的大投資者，它們不是像BP這樣的化石燃料企業，而是電力公用事業公司。”基普說。
NextEra能源公司（弗羅里達電力照明公司的子公司）是北美最大的風電企業，其發電能力超過1000萬千瓦，足夠為260萬個家庭供電。此外，美國的公用事業公司杜克能源、法國的電力巨頭EDF以及德國的E.ON公司，都是風電的主要投資者。
根據基普的說法，美國能源系統已經站在了朝向可再生能源的完全轉型的邊緣，不會再修建新的燃煤或核電站。
根據特拉華大學的一項新研究，到2030年，通過將風電和太陽能發電儲存在電池和燃料電池中，將能夠支撐起99.9%的巨大電網容量。
“關鍵在於電力來源的良好組合和儲存（我們通過殫精竭慮的研究會予以解決），以及正確的成本計算。”研究報告的作者之一威爾福特·克普頓說。
翻譯：奇芳
本文由環境網站“中外對話”授權發表。中外對話(www.chinadialogue.net)是一個致力於環境問題的中英雙語網站，總部位於倫敦，是一個獨立的非營利性組織。作者簡介：斯蒂芬·萊希，環境記者，是2012年聯合國全球新聞獎氣候變化報道獎得主之一。

(倫敦)地鐵站金屬粉塵

地鐵站金屬粉塵「可穿透肺腦肝腎」

更新時間 2013年 4月 25日, 星期四 - 格林尼治標準時間11:30

南安普敦大學的研究人員聲稱，地鐵空氣大量的超細微金屬粉塵對人體危害極大。

最新研究發現地下鐵系統中的空氣成分與地面上的差別很大；地下鐵空氣中含有的大量細微顆粒金屬粉塵可透入包括肺、腦、肝、腎在內的主要人體器官，對健康造成極大威脅。

來自英國南安普敦大學（University of Southampton）的一個研究小組呼籲有關方面就長期乘坐地鐵和在地鐵系統工作可能給人體帶來的健康隱患做出更多研究。

金屬顆粒
研究小組成員，南安普敦大學博士生洛克山姆（Matt Loxham）介紹說，他們主要研究了在歐洲大都市地鐵系統空氣中存在的超細微顆粒粉塵。
洛克山姆說：「通常來說，空氣中的超細微顆粒粉塵從化學組合來說都不會都人體造成很大威脅。」
「不過，我們對地鐵車站空氣的研究卻發現，地鐵系統空氣中除了有大量與地面空氣相同的大顆粒常規粉塵外，還有大量超細微金屬顆粒。」
研究小組指出，這些超細微金屬顆粒將能夠穿透並進入人體主要器官，對健康造成極大威脅。
引發爭議
倫敦交通局（Transport for London）對上述研究結果提出了異議。

倫敦地鐵系統運營主管考林斯（Howard Collins）說：「為了讓員工和乘客放心，我們常年監測地鐵內部的粉塵水平。我們的研究一貫顯示倫敦地鐵空氣中的礦物質粉塵和塵土水平不但符合安全標凖，而且粉塵水平一般只有法定安全標凖臨界點的三分之一。」

倫敦地鐵當局還補充說，除了他們自己的研究外，職業病研究所（Institute of Occupational Medicine）的研究也得出結論認為倫敦地鐵的空氣質量威脅健康的可能性「非常小」。
考林斯還說：「嘗試把倫敦地鐵與歐洲其他國家的地鐵混為一談是錯誤的。」
前車之鑒
有專家指出，此前很多國家的研究都顯示在諸如鋼鐵廠、焊接車間等工業環境中的高量金屬粉塵有害健康，不過有關地鐵環境中健康影響方面的研究卻不多。
研究者指出，除地鐵維修施工外，列車鋼輪常年與鋼軌高溫摩擦，再加上地鐵空氣相對滯怠且高溫，均是造成空氣中漂浮有大量細微金屬粉塵的原因。
他們呼籲地鐵管理方和公共衛生部門應該更多從事這方面的研究，以便確定長時間乘坐地鐵和在地鐵系統中工作可能對健康帶來的影響。
南安普敦大學的研究小組首先提取了在歐洲某機場地下的幹線地鐵空氣標本，然後將標本與燃燒木材的火爐邊上，以及堵塞的地面公路隧道中的空氣標本做出比較。
據悉，小組的下一研究主要是細微金屬粉塵如何影響呼吸道系統細胞，以及細胞如何能夠自我保護等課題。

日本核災須的善後不能便宜行事 to make the plant safer, there is a need for more permanent systems.

沒完沒了的日本核災後果
TEPCO rejects ministry's demand to pay 10.5 billion ...

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April 22, 2013

FUKUSHIMA—Radioactive cesium levels exceeding 100,000 becquerels per kilogram were measured in mud accumulated at the bottom of swimming pools at two high schools in and around Fukushima city.

 

Fukushima workers treated water leaks without...

April 20, 2013

Fourteen workers treated radioactive water leaking at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant without wearing personal dosimeters as required, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said April 19.

 IAEA inspects Japan's crippled nuclear plant

 IAEA reviewing cleanup at damaged Fukushima nuke...

IAEA稱福島核電冷卻系統需改善

MARTIN FACKLER 報道 2013年04月23日

東京——聯合國(United Nations)核監管機構周一稱，日本曾發生過事故的福島核電站的運營商不應該再依賴臨時措施，應當為突髮狀況做好準備。與此同時，該核電站的一個冷卻系統再次因為一隻死老鼠而被關閉。
國際原子能機構(International Atomic Energy Agency)的工作組讚揚核電站的運營商東京電力公司（Tokyo Electric Power Company，簡稱東電）維持住了福島第一核電站(Fukushima Daiichi)的穩定，並且在拆除核電站三個受損核反應堆的複雜工作上取得了進展。兩年前的大地震和海嘯使反應堆的冷卻系統陷入癱瘓，導致反應堆的堆芯 熔毀；該事故使日本東北地區全境受到了輻射影響。

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• 福島核電站停電事故系老鼠引發

國際原子能機構核燃料再生與廢棄技術部長、工作組組長鬍安·卡洛斯·蘭蒂赫(Juan Carlos Lentijo)說，東電公司已經完成了最緊急的任務，在非常困難的高輻射條件下完成了冷卻受損反應堆的工作。他還說，儘管如此，“還有改善的空間。”

他說，雖然東電公司一直致力於使核電站變得更加安全，採用的手段卻往往是“臨時系統或移動系統——因此，那裡需要更為持久的系統”。

本周一，部分冷卻系統的權宜性質再次顯現。當天，東電公司表示，因為在設備附近發現了死老鼠，他們已經暫時關閉了一個冷卻系統。該系統被關閉了四個小時，在此期間，工作人員確定電路並未受損。
上月，一隻死老鼠引發的短路曾讓一個類似冷卻系統被關閉了一天多的時間。
東電公司稱，這兩次關閉都沒有帶來任何危險，因為這些系統是存儲乏燃料的冷卻池，乏燃料釋放的熱量相對較少，即便停止冷卻一周也依然安全。
此外，該電站地下蓄水池內重度污染的水曾發生多次泄漏。雖然泄漏的水量通常比較小，這些事故還是讓人們擔心，東電公司維持核電站穩定的努力是否足夠。
聯合國原子能機構的蘭蒂赫稱，東電公司需要對感應器和其他的故障探測設施進行升級，這樣才能做出更及時的回應。他稱，在繼續清理損毀的反應堆時，加強處理突發事件的能力對東電公司來說至關重要。清理工作很複雜，可能要持續40年。
蘭蒂赫表示，該公司目前面臨的最大挑戰是處理核電站內不斷增加的大量含輻射水。每天約有10萬加侖（約37.9萬升）的地下水流進損毀的反應堆建 築，隨即受到污染。蘭蒂赫稱，他的小組已經給東電公司提出建議，指導他們如何安全地將水儲入水罐和業已佔據該核電站大部分地下空間的地下蓄水池。

翻譯：陳柳、張亮亮

Fukushima Plant Operator Should Prepare Better, U.N. Watchdog Says

By MARTIN FACKLER April 23, 2013

TOKYO — The operator of Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear plant should stop relying on stopgap measures and better prepare for the unexpected, the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency said Monday, even as a cooling system at the plant was once again shut down because of a dead rat.
A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency praised the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, for stabilizing the Fukushima Daiichi plant and making progress in the complex task of dismantling its three damaged nuclear reactors. A huge earthquake and tsunami two years ago knocked out the reactors’ cooling systems, causing their cores to melt down; the accident spewed radiation across northeastern Japan

Juan Carlos Lentijo, the director of the nuclear fuel cycle and waste technology division at the agency and the team’s leader, said that the company had accomplished the most urgent job, cooling the damaged reactors, in very difficult conditions of high radiation. However, he said, “there is still room for improvement.”

He said that while the company, called Tepco for short, has been working to make the plant safer, it was often doing so “with temporary systems or mobile systems — there is a need for more permanent systems.”

The makeshift nature of some of those cooling systems was exposed again on Monday when Tepco said it had temporarily switched off one of them after a dead rat was found nearby. The system was off for four hours while workers made sure there was no damage to electrical circuits.
Last month, a short circuit caused by a dead rat shut down a similar cooling system for more than a day.
Tepco said that neither shutdown created any danger, because the systems were cooling pools containing spent fuel, which give off relatively low levels of heat and would remain safe even if left uncooled for a week.
There have also been a number of leaks of highly contaminated water from underground storage pools at the plant. Though the leaks have generally been small, they have raised public concerns about whether Tepco was doing enough to stabilize the plant.
Mr. Lentijo of the U.N. agency said that Tepco needed to upgrade sensors and other mechanisms for identifying problems so that it could respond more promptly. He said it was essential for Tepco to strengthen its ability to cope with unexpected events as it continues to clean up the damaged reactors, a complex job that may take 40 years.
Mr. Lentijo said the company’s biggest immediate challenge was managing the huge and growing amount of radioactive water at the plant. Some 100,000 gallons of groundwater a day enters the damaged reactor buildings and becomes contaminated. Mr. Lentijo said his group gave Tepco advice on how to safely store the water in tanks and underground pools that now occupy much of the grounds of the plant.

An Adult Day Care Center, also commonly known as adult day services,

Money and Policy

Day Centers Sprout Up, Luring Fit Elders and Costing Medicaid

By NINA BERNSTEIN

In New York, the institutions, intended to save the state money, have undergone a vast expansion and are serving many older people who are not impaired.

 

 

 

美國發展中的制度 值得觀察 :

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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An Adult Day Care Center, also commonly known as adult day services, is a non-residential facility that supports the health, nutritional, social support, and daily living needs of adults in professionally staffed, group settings.[1] Adult day services centers serve as an emerging provider of transitional care and short-term rehabilitation following hospital discharge. Most centers operate 10 – 12 hours per day and provide meals, meaningful activities, and general supervision. Operations in adult daycare centers are often referred to as social models (focusing on socialization and prevention services) and/or a medical model (including skilled assessment, treatment and rehabilitation goals).

Day care centers may focus on providing care only for persons with a specific chronic condition such as Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, or their services may be available for any adult with disabilities. Many centers maintain a nurse on-site and devote a room for participants to have vital signs checked, and receive other health services from a medical assistant/nurse when needed. They may also provide transportation and personal care as well as support groups for caregivers.

According to the 2010 MetLife National Study of Adult Day Services, there is one direct care worker for every six participants, facilitating individualized, person-centered care and enabling staff to care for increasingly complex needs.[2] Nearly 80% of adult day centers have a nurse on staff, nearly 50% have a social worker on staff, and approzimately 60% offer case management services.[3]

Participation in adult day centers may prevent re-hospitalizations and may delay admission to residential long-term care. For participants who would otherwise stay at home alone, the social stimulation and recreational activities may improve or maintain physical and cognitive function. For caregivers, adult day centers provide respite care, enabling caregivers to work or to have a break from their caregiving responsibilities.[4]

More than 5,000 adult day centers are operating in the United States providing care for more than 260,000 older Americans each day.[5] Almost three-quarters of all adult day centers (71%) are operated as nonprofit organizations, and 16% are affiliated with the public sector.[6] Daily fees for services are almost always less than a home health visit and about half the cost of a skilled nursing facility. Daily fees for adult day services vary depending upon the services provided. Average daily fees across the country are approximately $62.[7] Funding for adult day services comes from participant fees, third party insurance, and public and philanthropic sources.
See also

 

デイケアセンター

移動: 案内、 検索

デイケアセンター (Day care center) とは、デイケアを行うために設けられた専門の施設で、在宅の高齢者や精神障害者などの療養者が、昼間の通所で治療、リハビリテーションを受けることのできる場である。

概要 [編集]

精神科の場合、病院は退院できたものの、通常の生活や日常作業に完全に復帰するにはまだ早いといった人たちが、理学療法士、作業療法士などの手を借りて、簡単な作業・娯楽・スポーツなどをしながら、社会復帰のための訓練を受ける。簡単な作業としては、折り紙などの紙細工や陶芸、手工芸、調理などが行われる。日本で初めてのデイケアセンターは川崎市社会復帰医療センター(現・川崎市リハビリテーション医療センター)で1971年に開設された。

参考文献 [編集]

• 『精神科デイケアQ&A』日本デイケア学会編著 中央法規出版 ISBN 978-4805826270

関連項目 [編集]

• 通所施設
• 高齢化
• 老人福祉施設
• 高齢者
• デイケア

嬰兒奶粉，中國夢的新國恥 （江春男）

司馬觀點：中國夢的新國恥 （江春男）

2013年04月17日 更多專欄文章

大陸觀光客在香港瘋狂地搶購嬰兒奶粉，香港政府為此限制顧客只能購買2罐，引起陸客強烈的不滿，批評香港人忘恩負義，見死不救，不顧內地孩子的死活。此事勾起雙方許多仇中與仇港的情緒。

德澳紐國祭限奶令

想不到，大陸觀光客跨國搶購奶粉的風潮，不只在香港當地發生，德國、澳洲和紐西蘭，也跟著採取限購的措施。《中國經營報》評論此事則說，「對於每天唱響中國夢的國度來說，這是一個巨大的國恥，令人無地自容」。
中國國務院新任港澳辦主任王光亞承認，他自己有個4個月大的孫子，也需要從香港代購奶粉，自己也是限奶令的受害者，他藉此呼籲香港人要換位思考，互相體諒。
奇怪的是，中國擁有神舟太空人、有航母、有強國之姿，卻仍然無法生產讓人民可以安心享用的嬰兒奶粉，這一點，連北韓媒體也引為笑談。
德國最大的日用品連鎖店，不只奶粉限購3包，還要帶著孩子或出示孩子身分證明才行。
澳洲各大商場限購每人每次4罐嬰兒奶粉，24小時內反覆重購者，收銀機電腦拒絕通過，當地郵局提高郵寄費。但這些禁令，似乎無法阻擋中國人千方百計搶購的熱潮。
從某一方面講，對食品安全和奶粉品質的重視，證明中國人生活水準大幅提高，不過，正如死豬流入黃浦江，不像以前一樣吃進肚子裡，如果說這也是一種進步，還不如說這是中國夢的新國恥。

拿魄力製安心食品

和舊國恥最大的不同是，新國恥是自己製造的，和外國人無關。其次，中國人要雪這種恥也不難，只要中共拿出勞教，維穩和管制新聞自由的一部分精力，就可讓老百姓安心享用安全的國產食品。

日本Takata 牌安全氣囊有缺失.回收三百四十萬台汽車

Japan carmakers recall 3.4 million vehicles for Takata airbag flaw

 

 

TOKYO/DETROIT | Thu Apr 11, 2013 5:14pm EDT
(Reuters) - Four Japanese automakers, including Toyota Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Co, are recalling 3.4 million vehicles sold around the world because airbags supplied by Takata Corp are at risk of catching fire or injuring passengers.
The move announced on Thursday is the largest recall ever for airbags made by Takata, the world's second-largest supplier of airbags and seatbelts. Shares of Takata, which first learned of the issue in October 2011, tumbled almost 10 percent in Tokyo trading.
The recall, also including vehicles from Honda Motor Co Ltd and Mazda Motor Corp, is the largest since Toyota pulled back more than 7 million vehicles in October to repair faulty power window switches. The scale of the recent safety actions underscores the risk of huge global supply chain problems as automakers increasingly rely on a handful of suppliers for common or similar parts to cut costs, analysts have said.
Toyota, Honda and Nissan said there were no reports of injuries or deaths because of the defective airbags, which affect more than 1.3 million vehicles in the United States.
Airbags are flexible fabric envelopes that inflate rapidly to cushion occupants in an accident. They were rolled out broadly in the mid-1980s and early 1990s, and are now required in most developed countries, with many vehicles offering multiple airbags.
However, U.S. requirements were changed in the late 1990s to lower the explosive force of airbag deployment after injuries caused by early generations of the technology.
In the current Takata recall, the airbag for the front passenger seat may not inflate correctly because of a manufacturing defect in the propellant used in the airbag inflator, the companies said. As a result, there is a risk of fires starting or of passengers being injured by metal fragments shooting up toward the windshield or down into the passenger foot well.
The recall covers some of the top-selling Japanese cars, including Toyota's Camry and Corolla, and rivals like the Nissan Maxima and Honda Civic. All of the vehicles in question were manufactured in or after 2000. None of the affected Camrys were sold in the United States.
UNWELCOME ATTENTION
The recall is not welcome news for Toyota, which took a hit to its reputation after it recalled nearly 19 million vehicles globally from late 2009 to early 2011 due to unintended acceleration claims.
"The huge recall is expected to generate a good deal of unwelcome attention, particularly for Toyota, as it strives to rebuild its reputation for quality in North America," IHS Automotive analyst Paul Newton said in a report.
Takata said it learned of the problem from an automaker it did not identify in October 2011 after an airbag deployment in Japan. It learned of a Honda accident in Puerto Rico the following month, according to documents filed with U.S. safety regulators.
From February 2012 through June last year, Takata could not reproduce the problem in testing, but that autumn the supplier was alerted to three additional incidents - two in Puerto Rico and one in Maryland - according to documents filed with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
By October 2012, Takata concluded it was possible that the propellant in certain wafers made at its plant in Moses Lake, Washington, might be inadequately compressed, which could lead to the rupture, according to NHTSA documents.
By March this year, it also discovered that some wafers used in inflators made at a plant in Monclova, Mexico, for a year ending in late October 2002 may have been exposed to excess moisture, which could lead to a rupture, according to the NHTSA documents.
Takata is aware of only six cases where an inflator ruptured in vehicles in the field - four in the United States and two in Japan - as well as six cases in salvage yards in Japan, according to NHTSA documents.
'STRANGE' DEPLOYMENT

In July and August 2012 in Japan, at scrap yards where airbags were being recycled, officials noted that airbags in some Honda vehicles deployed "strangely," adding to the probe, a U.S. spokesman for Honda said.

Industry officials said the elapsed time between the first report of a problem and the announcement of the recall was not unusual because companies typically search for patterns and possible causes of problems before launching a recall.

Toyota said in NHTSA documents that it also received a report in October 2011 about an accident in Japan related to the issue. The automaker then asked Takata to investigate, but through August 2011 no abnormalities were found with 66 recovered inflators.
In September 2012, Toyota said it received reports of three vehicles in the U.S. market with fractured inflators, and the automaker asked Takata to study 144 parts that were recovered.

In February 2013, Takata said the inflators were cracked, possibly because of lower material density increasing pressure on the part, so Toyota asked the supplier to determine if a trend was developing, according to NHTSA documents. On April 5, Toyota decided to conduct its recall, three days after Takata said certain inflators could be faulty.
Tokyo-based Takata said it supplies airbags and seatbelts to major automakers including Daimler AG and Ford Motor Co as well as the Japanese brands.
Some non-Japanese automakers were also supplied with the faulty airbags, Takata spokesman Toyohiro Hishikawa said. He declined to name those automakers.
General Motors Co said Takata is a supplier, but that the problem affected only about 55,000 Pontiac Vibe cars from model year 2003 built for the U.S. and Canadian markets. The cars were assembled at the Fremont, California, plant GM previously ran in a joint venture with Toyota and were included in Toyota's total recall number, a GM spokesman said. GM dealers will service its cars.
BMW has an undetermined number of vehicles affected by the recall, a U.S. spokesman for Takata said.
Officials with Chrysler, Daimler, Ford, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Renault SA and Volkswagen AG said they were not affected because they did not use the airbags covered by the recall. India's Tata Motors Ltd and its Jaguar Land Rover unit said they are not affected.
A Takata spokesman in the United States said no other customers were affected. Italy's Fiat SpA and India's Maruti Suzuki said Takata is not a supplier.

PREVIOUS RECALL
Between 2008 and 2011, Honda was forced to recall about 2.8 million vehicles after finding a defect with driver-side airbags supplied by Takata.
"When the last recall took place, we inspected everything such as the site of manufacturing, but we were not able to identify this problem," said Hideyuki Matsumoto, another spokesman for Takata.
The present recall, announced during Japanese trading hours, hit Takata's shares harder than stock prices of automakers, who typically carry reserves for recalls and warranty costs.
It is the largest recall for Takata since 1995 when the company was involved in a recall of more than 8 million vehicles because of defective seatbelts.
Shares in Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mazda, which continue to be supported by a weakening yen, were up between 3.1 and 5.8 percent, outpacing a 2 percent rise in the benchmark Nikkei. ($1 = 99.5050 Japanese yen)
(Reporting by Yoko Kubota and Mari Saito; Additional reporting by staff in Washington, Europe, Mexico, India and China; editing by Daniel Magnowski and Matthew Lewis)

福島核電廠廢水儲存槽不足Japan scrambles to build more safety tanks

Another leak at Fukushima, Japan scrambles to build more safety tanks Firstpost Tokyo: Tokyo Electric Power, the utility that operates the Japanese nuclear plant devastated two years ago by an earthquake and tsunami, is scrambling to build more tanks to safely store radioactive water after leaks were found at makeshift pits ... See all stories on this topic » Firstpost

電源線受損應速換: a bent, cracked or broken laptop power cable should be replaced as quickly as possible.

Replacing a Damaged Power Cord

By J.D. BIERSDORFER

For safety's sake, a bent, cracked or broken laptop power cable should be replaced as quickly as possible.

日本監督 福島核電站太鬆散/泄漏上百噸放射性污水 Damaged Nuclear Plant in Japan Leaks Toxic Water

 Japan experts say new nuclear safety plan too lax
Lincoln Journal Star
Experts who investigated Japan's nuclear crisis said Monday that a watchdog's oversight of the crippled plant's operator is still too lax, amid renewed public fear over a recent spate of safety problems. The Fukushima Dai-ichi plant has been plagued ...
 Accident investigators say Japan nuclear safety plans too lax for crowded ...
Washington Post
TOKYO — Experts who investigated Japan's nuclear crisis said Monday that government oversight of the crippled plant's operator is still too lax, as public concern has grown over recent safety problems. A power failure last month caused by a rat that ...


讀了這篇應稍知核電廠不是台灣玩得起的.

Damaged Nuclear Plant in Japan Leaks Toxic Water

By MARTIN FACKLER April 07, 2013

TOKYO — Tens of thousands of gallons of radioactive water leaked from a large underground storage pool at Japan’s crippled nuclear plant, and thousands more gallons could seep out before the faulty pool can be emptied, the plant’s operator said Saturday.
The disclosure came a day after workers at the stricken Fukushima plant who were installing wire nets to keep rats away from a vital cooling system instead tripped that system, causing it to fail for the second time in weeks.

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About 120 tons, or almost 32,000 gallons, of highly contaminated water appeared to have breached the inner protective lining of the pool at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, said the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company. It was unclear how much of the water had made it through two additional layers of lining to reach soil, but radiation levels outside the pool have risen, a sign that some water is getting out, said the company, known as Tepco.
The leak highlights the daunting challenge of what to do with the huge amounts of contaminated water created by makeshift cooling systems at the plant, after a huge earthquake and tsunami knocked out its regular cooling systems two years ago in the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. Since then, Tepco has essentially been pouring water onto the damaged reactor cores and storage ponds to keep them from overheating.
As it is used for cooling, the water becomes so contaminated that it must be safely stored at the plant. Tepco said it was already storing more than a quarter-million tons of radioactive water in hundreds of tanks that seem to fill every available space at the plant, or in underground pools like the leaking one. With the decommissioning of the Fukushima plant likely to take decades, Tepco has said it expects the amount of radioactive water to keep growing, and possibly more than double within three years. The company has said it is building more storage space and new filtering facilities to clean the water.
The company said the leak appeared to be the biggest since the early months after the March 2011 disaster, when leaks allowed contaminated water to flow into the nearby Pacific Ocean. Tepco said that this time, it did not expect any of the toxic water to reach the sea, since the pool is half a mile from the coast.
Still, Tepco said it had begun pumping the remaining 13,000 tons of water out of the faulty pool and into a similar pool. The pools are like large ponds dug into the ground, protected by multiple layers of plastic sheets and covered with dirt.
Emptying the damaged pool could take five more days, the company said, during which time an additional 47 tons, or about 12,000 gallons, could leak.
The debris-strewn plant still relies on makeshift cooling systems, some of which were hastily put together in the accident’s frantic aftermath.
A blackout disabled cooling at four fuel pools last month, an event the company traced to a rat that might have gnawed on power cables and caused a short circuit. Engineers found its scorched body in a damaged switchboard.
Tepco has since installed mousetraps at the site and promised to plug holes through which rats and other rodents might enter buildings and gnaw on important equipment. It has also promised to speed up work to install backup power cables to the fuel pools.
But Friday afternoon, four workers using wire meshing to seal a space around electric cables caused a ground fault, or the accidental flow of current to the ground. No one was injured, but the ground fault shut off electricity to the cooling system at the No. 3 reactor fuel pool.
The spent-fuel pool went without fresh cooling water for almost three hours before cooling was restored late Friday. There was no imminent danger to the 566 nuclear fuel rods stored in the pool, according to the company. It would have taken at least two weeks for the pool to have risen above the safe level of 149 degrees Fahrenheit, Tepco said.

福島核電站上百噸放射性污水泄漏

MARTIN FACKLER 報道 2013年04月07日

東京——福島核電站的運營商上周六稱，這座已停產的核電站內的一個巨大的地下蓄水池已經泄漏了數萬加侖的放射性污水，在出現問題的水池被排空之前，可能還會有多達數千加侖的污水泄出。
事故發生的前一天，工人們正在受損嚴重的核電站安裝金屬絲網，以防止老鼠進入一處重要的冷卻系統。但工人的操作失誤引發冷卻系統斷路，導致該系統在幾周之內第二次未能正常運轉。

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運營商東京電力公司（Tokyo Electric Power Company，簡稱東電）表示，大約有120噸，也就是近3.2萬加侖高度污染的污水似乎已經衝破福島第一核電站(Fukushima Daiichi plant)蓄水池的內部保護層。東電說，目前還不清楚，有多少污水已經衝破其餘兩道保護層，滲入土壤，不過，水池外的放射性濃度已經升高，這個跡象表 明，一些污水正在滲出。
污水泄露事件突顯了核電站在處理臨時冷卻系統產生的大量污水方面所遭遇的嚴峻挑戰。兩年前發生的福島核事故是切爾諾貝利核事故之後最嚴重的核事故， 當時，一場大地震和海嘯破壞了核電站的常規冷卻系統。自此之後，東電實際上一直把水傾倒進受損的反應堆堆芯和存儲池，以防止堆芯和存儲池過熱。
由於被用於冷卻反應堆，這些水受到了嚴重的污染，因此必須把它們安全地存儲在核電站內部。東電說，他們已把逾25萬噸的放射性污水存儲在數百個蓄水 罐內，這些裝置似乎佔據了核電站里所有能利用的空間，還有一些污水則貯存在地下蓄水池內，比如發生泄露的那一個。由於福島核電站可能需要幾十年才能完全拆 除，東電錶示，預計放射性污水水量將繼續上升，而且可能會在三年之內翻一番還多。東電已經表示，正在建造更多的存儲設施，以及新的過濾設施來凈化污水。
該公司表示，2011年3月災難發生後的幾個月里出現的泄漏事故導致污水流入附近的太平洋，而此次泄漏似乎是自上述事故以來最嚴重的一次。東電錶示，他們認為此次泄漏事故不會致使污水流入海洋，因為這個蓄水池距離海岸有半英里遠。
但東電錶示，該公司已經開始將剩餘的1.3萬噸污水從出現問題的水池抽出，然後灌入類似的水池。這些蓄水池通過掘地產生，它們受到多層塑料薄膜的保護，表層覆蓋著泥土。
該公司表示，抽空受損儲水池可能還需要五天時間，而在此期間，又可能會有47噸（約合1.2萬加侖）污染水泄出。
這座瓦礫遍布的核電站仍然要依靠臨時冷卻系統，而其中一些裝置是在核事故之後的混亂時期匆忙組裝而成。
上個月，斷電事故導致四個燃料池的冷卻系統陷入癱瘓。該公司追蹤發現，可能是一隻老鼠咬噬了電纜，引發短路。工程師在一個出現故障的配電盤中發現了燒焦的老鼠屍體。
此後，東電在核電站放置了捕鼠器，並承諾堵塞裂口，防止老鼠和其他嚙齒動物進入建築，咬噬重要設備。該公司還承諾加快速度，安裝連接燃料池的備用電纜。
但周五下午，四名工人在電纜周圍利用金屬絲網設置封閉區域時引發接地故障——電流意外與地面相接。沒有人受傷，但接地故障切斷了3號反應堆燃料池冷卻系統的電力供應。
周五晚些時候，冷卻系統恢復工作。在此之前，乏燃料池在將近三個小時的時間裡沒有冷卻水注入。據該公司透露，事故沒有對池中存儲的566根核燃料棒造成緊迫威脅。東電錶示，燃料池的溫度至少要兩周才會升高到超過149華氏度安全線的水平。

翻譯：張薇、許欣

New Health Culprit Carnitine 肉鹼 Found in Red Meat

 

New Health Culprit Carnitine Found in Red Meat

 Doctors have long assumed that saturated fat and cholesterol in red meat are what raise the risk of heart disease. But a study in the journal Nature Medicine fingers another culprit: carnitine, a compound abundant in red meat that also is sold as a dietary supplement and found in some energy drinks.

Carnitine typically helps the body transport fatty acids into cells to be used as energy. But researchers at the Cleveland Clinic found that in both humans and mice, certain bacteria in the digestive tract convert carnitine to another metabolite, called TMAO, that promotes atherosclerosis, or a thickening of the arteries.

The researchers, led by Stanley Hazen, chief of cellular and molecular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute, tested the carnitine and TMAO levels of omnivores, vegans and vegetarians, and examined records of 2,595 patients undergoing cardiac evaluations. In patients with high TMAO levels, the more carnitine in their blood, the more likely they were to develop cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, stroke and death.

Many studies have linked consumption of red and processed meat to cardiovascular disease and some cancers. The Harvard School of Public Health reported last year that among 83,000 nurses and 37,000 male health professionals followed since the 1980s, those who consumed the highest levels of red meat had the highest risk of death during study, and that one additional serving a day of red meat raised the risk of death by 13%.

The new findings don't mean that red meat is more hazardous than previously thought, but may help explain the underlying risk, which some researchers have long thought was higher than the saturated fat and cholesterol content alone could explain.

Dr. Hazen speculated that carnitine could be compounding the danger. 'Cholesterol is still needed to clog the arteries, but TMAO changes how cholesterol is metabolized─like the dimmer on a light switch,' he said. 'It may explain why two people can have the same LDL level [a measure of one type of cholesterol], but one develops cardiovascular disease and the other doesn't.'

One surprising finding, Dr. Hazen said, was how a long-term diet that includes meat affected the amount of TMAO-producing bacteria in the gut and thus magnified the risk. In the study, when longtime meat-eaters consumed an eight-ounce steak and a carnitine supplement, their bacteria and TMAO levels rose considerably. But when a vegan ate the same combination, he showed no increase in TMAO or bacterial change.

'Vegans basically lose their ability to digest carnitine,' said Dr. Hazen.

The study, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, didn't assess how little red meat people could consume and still have elevated TMAO. Nor did it look at how long someone had to abstain from red meat to end the process. 'We know it will be longer than one week, but shorter than one year,' Dr. Hazen said.

He and his colleagues have been exploring how altering gut bacteria might influence the risk of heart disease. 'In the future, maybe there will be a heart-healthy yogurt, or a drug to block the formation of TMAO,' he said.

Consumption of red meat─primarily beef, veal, lamb and pork─has been falling gradually since 1970.

Trade groups for meat producers have questioned the link between red meat and cardiovascular disease on the grounds that studies that ask people to recall what they ate over long periods are imprecise.

As a dietary supplement, carnitine is designated as 'generally regarded as safe' by the Food and Drug Administration, but few studies have looked at its long-term safety. A 2006 risk assessment found no adverse effects when subjects consumed 2,000 milligrams a day for six months. (An eight-ounce steak has roughly 200 mg of carnitine.)

Ads for supplements promote carnitine as helping boost energy levels, particularly in endurance sports, and assisting in recovery after intense exercise; some also claim that it helps shed pounds and improve brain function.

MELINDA BECK

紅肉中發現新的健康風險

Bloomberg News

牛肉中含有肉鹼。一項研究發現，肉鹼在人體消化道中被細菌轉化后產生的物質，可能增加人們罹患心臟病和中風等疾病的幾率。

長

期以來﹐醫生們一直認為紅肉中能夠增加心臟病風險的就是飽和脂肪和膽固醇。不過﹐《自然-醫學》(Nature Medicine)雜志的一項研究發現了另一個罪魁禍首：肉鹼。肉鹼在紅肉中含量豐富﹐同時也作為膳食補充劑出售﹐有些能量飲料中也含有肉鹼。

肉鹼一般能夠幫助人體將脂肪酸運送到細胞內以產生能量。但是克里夫蘭醫學中心(Cleveland Clinic)的研究人員發現﹐在人體和小鼠體內﹐某些細菌在消化道可以將肉鹼轉化成另一種代謝物氧化三甲胺(TMAO)﹐而TMAO能夠誘發動脈粥樣硬化。

在 克里夫蘭醫學中心勒納研究所的細胞和分子醫學主任黑曾(Stanley Hazen)領導下﹐研究員人員們測試了雜食者、嚴格素食主義者和素食者體內肉鹼和TMAO的水平﹐研究了2,595名接受心臟評估的病人的記錄。在擁有 較高TMAO水平的病人中﹐血液中的肉鹼水平越高﹐他們越有可能罹患心血管疾病、心臟病、中風等疾病﹐也越有可能死亡。

許多研究證明﹐食 用紅肉和加工肉類會誘發心血管病和一些癌症。哈佛大學公共衛生學院(Harvard School of Public Health)去年發佈報告說﹐上世紀80年代開始追蹤的8.3萬名護士和3.7萬名男性健康專家中﹐食用紅肉水平最高的人死亡風險最高﹐每天多吃一份紅 肉﹐死亡的風險增加13%。

新的發現並不意味著紅肉比之前認為的更加危險﹐但可能有助於解釋紅肉的潛在風險。長期以來﹐一些研究人員認為﹐紅肉的風險難以僅用飽和脂肪和膽固醇來解釋。

黑曾認為﹐肉鹼可能加劇了紅肉的危害。他說﹐堵塞血管仍然需要膽固醇﹐但是TMAO改變了膽固醇的新陳代謝方式﹐就像光開關上的調光器﹐這可能解釋為什麼兩個人可以有同樣水平的低密度脂蛋白(LDL﹐一種膽固醇類型)﹐但是一個得了心血管疾病﹐另一個卻沒有。

黑 曾說﹐一個驚人的發現是﹐長期食肉的飲食習慣會影響消化道內產生TMAO的細菌的數量﹐並因此增大患病風險。在研究中﹐當長期的食肉者吃掉八盎司的牛排和 一種肉鹼補充劑時﹐他們體內的細菌和TMAO水平均大幅上升。但是當一個嚴格素食者吃掉同樣的東西之後﹐他的TMAO水平沒有上升﹐細菌水平也沒有發生變 化。

黑曾說﹐嚴格素食者失去了消化肉鹼的能力。

這項由美國國立衛生研究院(National Institutes of Health)資助的研究沒有評估增加TMAO水平至少需要食用多少紅肉。研究也沒有發現一些人戒掉紅肉多長時間後才能阻止TMAO的上升。黑曾說﹐我們知道這會長於一個星期﹐但是短於一年。

他和他的同事一直在探索改變腸道細菌如何影響人們患心臟病的風險。他說﹐未來也許將出現一種心臟健康酸奶﹐或一種藥物﹐來阻止TMAO的形成。

紅肉的消耗量自1970年以來一直在下降。紅肉主要包括牛肉、小牛肉、羊肉和豬肉。

肉類生產商的行業組織質疑了紅肉和心血管病有關的結論﹐他們的理由是﹐研究中人們對長期飲食的回憶並不精準。

作 為一種飲食補充劑﹐肉鹼被美國食品藥品管理局(Food and Drug Administration)認可為“一般公認安全物質”﹐但是幾乎沒有人研究過肉鹼的長期安全性。2006年的風險評估發現﹐受試者連續六個月每天攝 入2,000毫克肉鹼不會產生負面影響（八盎司的牛排大約含有200毫克肉鹼）。

食品補充劑的廣告中宣傳說﹐肉鹼能夠幫助補充能量﹐尤其是在耐力運動中增強體能﹐並有助於在大量運動之後恢復體力﹐有些廣告還說﹐肉鹼有助減肥並改善腦部功能。

MELINDA BECK

Culprit in Heart Disease Goes Beyond Meat’s Fat

GINA KOLATA April 08, 2013

科學家發現心臟病與腸道細菌有關

GINA KOLATA 報道 2013年04月08日

正值早餐時間，參與一項對紅肉及其影響研究的人們吃了擺在面前冒着熱氣、滋滋作響的西冷牛排。研究員為了這自己買了一台喬治·福爾曼(George Foreman)牌烤架，協助他工作的護士負責烹調。
以科學研究的名義，這六名男、女每人吃了一份8盎司（約合227克）重的多汁牛排，一點都沒剩。然後，他們等待抽血。


It was breakfast time and the people participating in a study of red meat and its consequences had hot, sizzling sirloin steaks plopped down in front of them. The researcher himself bought a George Foreman grill for the occasion, and the nurse assisting him did the cooking.
For the sake of science, these six men and women ate every last juicy bite of the 8-ounce steaks. Then they waited to have their blood drawn.

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在一項研究中，吃了牛排的肉食者體內出現了某種化學物質的激增，這種物質會增加心臟病的風險。

主持這項研究的克利夫蘭醫學中心(Cleveland Clinic)的斯坦利·黑曾(Stanley Hazen)醫生和他的同事們已經積累了證據，為紅肉可能引發心臟病提出一個令人驚訝的新解釋。他們正以這次早餐實驗來驗證其結論。
Dr. Stanley Hazen of the Cleveland Clinic, who led the study, and his colleagues had accumulated evidence for a surprising new explanation of why red meat may contribute to heart disease. And they were testing it with this early morning experiment.
The researchers had come to believe that what damaged hearts was not just the thick edge of fat on steaks, or the delectable marbling of their tender interiors. In fact, these scientists suspected that saturated fat and cholesterol made only a minor contribution to the increased amount of heart disease seen in red-meat eaters. The real culprit, they proposed, was a little-studied chemical that is burped out by bacteria in the intestines after people eat red meat. It is quickly converted by the liver into yet another little-studied chemical called TMAO that gets into the blood and increases the risk of heart disease.
研究人員逐漸認識到，對心臟有害的不僅是牛排邊角上厚厚的肥肉，或中間幼嫩美味的大理石狀肉。事實上，這些科學家懷疑，飽和脂肪和膽固醇只是喜食紅 肉者心臟疾病多發的一小部分誘因。他們提出，真正的罪魁禍首卻是一種在人們吃了紅肉以後由腸道內細菌釋放出來的化學物質，此前甚少有人研究。這種物質會很 快被肝臟轉化成另一種少有研究的化學物質，稱為氧化三甲胺(TMAO)，進入血液後增加心臟病的風險。



至少理論上如此。所以，那天早上的問題就是：他們吃了牛排以後，血液中是否會爆發出大量的氧化三甲胺？至少一年沒吃肉的純素食者，吃了同樣的一頓飯後，是否會出現同樣的情況？
That, at least, was the theory. So the question that morning was: Would a burst of TMAO show up in people’s blood after they ate steak? And would the same thing happen to a vegan who had not eaten meat for at least a year and who consumed the same meal?
The answers were: yes, there was a TMAO burst in the five meat eaters; and no, the vegan did not have it. And TMAO levels turned out to predict heart attack risk in humans, the researchers found. The researchers also found that TMAO actually caused heart disease in mice. Additional studies with 23 vegetarians and vegans and 51 meat eaters showed that meat eaters normally had more TMAO in their blood and that they, unlike those who spurned meat, readily made TMAO after swallowing pills with carnitine.
“It’s really a beautiful combination of mouse studies and human studies to tell a story I find quite plausible,” said Dr. Daniel J. Rader, a heart disease researcher at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, who was not involved in the research.
Researchers say the work could lead to new treatments for heart disease — perhaps even an antibiotic to specifically wipe out the bacterial culprit — and also to a new way to assess heart disease risk by looking for TMAO in the blood.
Of course, critical questions remain. Would people reduce their heart attack risk if they lowered their blood TMAO levels? An association between TMAO levels in the blood and heart disease risk does not necessarily mean that one causes the other. And which gut bacteria in particular are the culprits?
There also are questions about the safety of supplements, like energy drinks and those used in body building. Such supplements often contain carnitine, a substance found mostly in red meat.
But the investigators’ extensive experiments in both humans and animals, published Sunday in Nature Medicine, have persuaded scientists not connected with the study to seriously consider this new theory of why red meat eaten too often might be bad for people.
Dr. Hazen began his research five years ago with a scientific fishing expedition. He directs a study of patients who come to the Cleveland Clinic for evaluations. Over the years, there have been 10,000. All were at risk for heart disease and agreed to provide blood samples and to be followed so the researchers would know if any patient had a heart attack or died of heart disease in the three years after the first visit. Those samples enabled him to look for small molecules in the blood to see whether any were associated with heart attacks or deaths.
That study and a series of additional experiments led to the discovery that a red meat substance no one had suspected — carnitine — seemed to be a culprit. Carnitine is found in red meat and gets its name from the Latin word carnis, the root of carnivore, Dr. Hazen said. It is also found in other foods, he noted, including fish and chicken and even dairy products, but in smaller amounts. Red meat, he said, is the major source, and for many people who eat a lot of red meat, it may be a concern.
The researchers found that carnitine was not dangerous by itself. Instead, the problem arose when it was metabolized by bacteria in the intestines and ended up as TMAO in the blood.
That led to the steak-eating study. It turned out that within a couple of hours of a regular meat-eater having a steak, TMAO levels in the blood soared.
The researchers’ theory, based on their laboratory studies, is that TMAO enables cholesterol to get into artery walls and also prevents the body from excreting excess cholesterol.
But what is it about carnitine that bacteria like? The answer, Dr. Hazen said, is that bacteria use it as a fuel.
He said he worries about carnitine-containing energy drinks. Carnitine often is added to the drinks on the assumption that is will speed fat metabolism and increase a person’s energy level, Dr. Hazen said.
Dr. Robert H. Eckel, a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado and a past president of the American Heart Association, worried about how carnitine might be affecting body builders and athletes who often take it because they believe it builds muscle.
Those supplements, Dr. Hazen said, “are scary, especially for our kids.”
答案是：會，在五位食肉者身上的確出現了氧化三甲胺的激增；不會，純素食者沒有出現這樣的情況。經研究證明，氧化三甲胺的水平是能夠預測人類心肌梗 死風險的。研究人員還發現，氧化三甲胺的確會讓小鼠得心臟病。另外對23位素食者和純素食者以及51位肉食者的研究顯示，肉食者的血液中通常含有更多氧化 三甲胺，和拒絕吃肉的人不同，他們在服用了含有肉鹼的葯後就會立刻產生出氧化三甲胺。
賓西法尼亞大學醫學院(University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine)心臟病研究員丹尼爾·J·雷德(Daniel J. Rader)醫生稱，“通過小鼠和人體研究來共同闡述一個理論，這真的是一種完美結合，我覺得這一結論很可信。”雷德醫生沒有參與這項研究。
研究人員說，這項研究工作有可能為心臟疾病帶來新的治療方案，甚至可能找到一種抗生素，能有針對性地清除引發問題的細菌，也可能發現一種測定心臟病風險的新方法——查看血液中的氧化三甲胺。
當然，關鍵問題依然存在。如果人們能夠降低他們血液中氧化三甲胺的水平，是不是就能減少心肌梗死的風險？血液中氧化三甲胺的水平與心臟病風險的聯繫未必意味着，它們之間存在因果關係。並且，引發問題的到底是哪一種腸道細菌呢？
還有關於補劑的安全問題，如能量飲料和健美補劑。這類補劑通常含有肉鹼，一種主要存在於紅肉中的物質。
然而這項周日發表在《自然醫學》(Nature Medicine)雜誌上的研究所進行的大量人類和實驗，對和此次研究無關的科學家們來說已經足夠有說服力，在為何經常吃紅肉會對人有害的問題上，這項新理論引起了他們的重視。
黑曾醫生的研究始於五年前的一次科學調查。他主持了一項對克利夫蘭醫學中心患者的研究。幾年下來研究對象達到了1萬人。所有患者都有罹患心臟病的風 險，他們同意提供血液樣本並接受跟蹤調查，這樣研究人員就能夠了解，是否有患者在初次就診後三年內出現心肌梗死或死於心臟疾病。這些樣本使黑曾醫生能夠尋 找血液內的小分子，來看看其中是否有與心肌梗死或死亡相關的。
這項研究及一系列附加的實驗發現，紅肉中的一種從未成為懷疑對象的物質——肉鹼——似乎是罪魁禍首。黑曾醫生說“肉鹼”(carnitine)存在 於紅肉中，這個名稱來自於拉丁詞carnis，也就是食肉動物(carnivore)一詞的詞根。他指出，其他食物中也有肉鹼，包括魚肉和雞肉，甚至乳製 品，不過量都很小。他說紅肉是肉鹼的主要來源，對那些大量食用紅肉的人來說，它可能是一種隱患。
研究人員發現，肉鹼本身並不危險。然而，當肉鹼在腸道內被細菌分解，並最終成為血液中的氧化三甲胺時，問題就會出現。
這導致了那項吃牛排的研究。結果證明，一個經常食肉的人在食用牛排幾小時之內，血液內的氧化三甲胺水平會飆升。
研究者基於實驗室研究的理論是，氧化三甲胺令膽固醇進入動脈血管壁，並阻止身體排出多餘的膽固醇。
但是細菌看上了肉鹼什麼呢？黑曾醫生說，答案就是細菌把它當成一種能量來源。
他說他對那些含肉鹼的能量飲料感到擔憂。人們在這些飲料中加入肉鹼通常是認為它可以加速脂肪代謝，並提升一個人的能量水平。
令科羅拉多大學(University of Colorado)醫學教授、美國心臟病協會(American Heart Association)前會長羅伯特·H·埃克爾博士(Robert H. Eckel)擔心的是，肉鹼會對健美人士及運動員有影響，這些人認為肉鹼有增肌作用，因此經常飲用。
黑曾醫生說，這些補劑“很可怕，特別是對我們的孩子來說。”

翻譯：曹莉、林蒙克

Easing Brain Fatigue With a Walk in the Park 頭昏腦脹？到公園走走吧！

大腦疲勞？到公園走走吧！

GRETCHEN REYNOLDS 報道 2013年04月04日

Brick House Pictures/Getty Images

科學家早就發現，人類大腦保持鎮靜、全神貫注的能力是有限的，這種能力會在持續的噪音和城市生活忙亂嘈雜的逼迫下不堪重負。於是有時候，人們便產生了俗稱“腦疲勞”的狀態。
腦疲勞時，你很難集中精力、容易忘事、精神錯亂——換言之，就是我這個樣子。

不過，蘇格蘭的一項創新性研究告訴人們：只需在綠葉叢生的公園裡逛上一逛，腦疲勞就能夠減輕。
走進綠地——比如公園或種有很多樹的廣場——可以減壓和提高注意力，這並不算是新奇發現。研究者早已論述過綠地具有鎮定效果；比起忙碌的城市街道， 綠地不要求人們有太多的“定向注意力”。自然環境激發出的“軟引力” （soft fascination，一個形容靜思冥想的迷人詞語）幾乎不需要人腦產生任何定向注意，從而大腦可重置被過度使用的精力，緩解腦疲勞。
儘管此理論得到了廣泛認同，但一直難於驗證。以前有研究發現：比起主要生活在鋼筋混凝土建築中的人們，居住在樹多或公園附近的人唾液中皮質醇（一種應激激素）水平較低。注意力有缺陷的兒童，在公園或植物園散步之後容易集中注意力，認知測驗的成績有所提高。更直接的研究是：科學家把志願者帶到實驗室，在他們頭上裝戴檢測電極，然後給他們看自然風景或城市街景的照片。腦電波信號表明，志願者在看自然風景的照片時更加沉穩、鎮靜。
然而實驗室外、行走於城市與公園之間的人們，他們的大腦如何反應還一直無法被監測——或者說直至最近，在一種輕型便攜的腦電圖記錄儀發明出來之前，還沒被監測過。
新研究發表於2013年3月《英國運動醫學雜誌》(The British Journal of Sports Medicine)上。英國愛丁堡的赫瑞瓦特大學(Heriot-Watt University)和愛丁堡大學(University of Edinburgh)的科學家們把這種新型便攜式腦電波儀(EEG, electroencephalo-graph)貼在了12名健康年輕的成年人的頭皮上。電極不露痕迹地藏在一頂貌似普通的針織帽下面，通過無線網絡將腦 波數據傳遞到每個志願者背包里的手提電腦上。
這些研究者以前曾探索過綠地環境對認知的影響。他們讓志願者繞着愛丁堡三個不同地區步行大約1.5英里（約2.4千米）。
志願者在第一個0.5英里內會穿過古老的歷史購物區，那裡有精緻的古典建築，便道上有很多行人，但車流量很小。
接下來的0.5英里，志願者會走進公園一類的地區。
最後一段步行在忙碌的商業區中結束。這裡到處是水泥建築、車水馬龍。
志願者被要求按自己的速度行走，不要着急也別太慢。大多數人在25分鐘之內走完全程。
整個過程中，志願者頭上的便攜式腦電波儀不斷將腦電波的波形反饋到他們背着的手提電腦上。
然後，研究者對輸出信號進行比較，尋找認為與沮喪、定向注意力（他們稱之為“投入度”）、精神喚醒(mental arousal)以及沉靜和鎮定相關的波形。
分析結果證實了綠地能減輕腦疲勞的理論。
當最後走過高度城市化的、繁華的街道——特別是車流量很大的商業區時，志願者的腦電波一致顯示他們的精神處於更加被喚醒的狀態，更留心四周環境，也更沮喪。然而當他們走在公園裡時，腦電波波形變得更為沉靜。
穿行於公園時，步行者平靜多了。
此研究的負責人、赫瑞瓦特大學建築學院教授珍妮·羅伊(Jenney Roe)說，這並不是說他們不關注周圍情況。她解釋道，自然環境仍然會“吸引大腦注意”，不過此類吸引力是“無需花費精力的”，心理學稱之為“無意注意” (involuntary attention)。它佔有一定的注意，但同時也為精神反應留有餘地；可作為由典型市區街道誘發的不停歇注意力的緩和劑。
當然，她的實驗樣本量小，更像是為新型小巧的便攜腦電波儀所做的初步研究，而非眼觀綠色對認知影響的決定性研究。
儘管如此，羅伊教授說，他們的發現還是具有一致性並強有力的。而且，從我們這些生活在城市裡、注意力被迫高度集中的人的角度來說，是很有價值的。羅 伊說，研究結果意味着，現在，你就應當考慮“放下工作休息一會。到綠地走一走，坐一坐；甚至僅僅從你的辦公室窗戶向外眺望綠地也可以。”這可不是什麼沒有效率地浪費時間，羅伊教授適時地讓我們放心：“這樣做很有可能幫你恢復精力，解決腦疲勞，減輕壓力。”

本文最初發表於2013年3月27日。
翻譯：孫舒雯

Easing Brain Fatigue With a Walk in the Park

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS April 04, 2013

Brick House Pictures/Getty Images

Scientists have known for some time that the human brain’s ability to stay calm and focused is limited and can be overwhelmed by the constant noise and hectic, jangling demands of city living, sometimes resulting in a condition informally known as brain fatigue.
With brain fatigue, you are easily distracted, forgetful and mentally flighty — or, in other words, me.

But an innovative new study from Scotland suggests that you can ease brain fatigue simply by strolling through a leafy park.
The idea that visiting green spaces like parks or tree-filled plazas lessens stress and improves concentration is not new. Researchers have long theorized that green spaces are calming, requiring less of our so-called directed mental attention than busy, urban streets do. Instead, natural settings invoke “soft fascination,” a beguiling term for quiet contemplation, during which directed attention is barely called upon and the brain can reset those overstretched resources and reduce mental fatigue.
But this theory, while agreeable, has been difficult to put to the test. Previous studies have found that people who live near trees and parks have lower levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, in their saliva than those who live primarily amid concrete, and that children with attention deficits tend to concentrate and perform better on cognitive tests after walking through parks or arboretums. More directly, scientists have brought volunteers into a lab, attached electrodes to their heads and shown them photographs of natural or urban scenes, and found that the brain wave readouts show that the volunteers are more calm and meditative when they view the natural scenes.
But it had not been possible to study the brains of people while they were actually outside, moving through the city and the parks. Or it wasn’t, until the recent development of a lightweight, portable version of the electroencephalogram, a technology that studies brain wave patterns.
For the new study, published this month in The British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and the University of Edinburgh attached these new, portable EEGs to the scalps of 12 healthy young adults. The electrodes, hidden unobtrusively beneath an ordinary looking fabric cap, sent brain wave readings wirelessly to a laptop carried in a backpack by each volunteer.
The researchers, who had been studying the cognitive impacts of green spaces for some time, then sent each volunteer out on a short walk of about a mile and half that wound through three different sections of Edinburgh.
The first half mile or so took walkers through an older, historic shopping district, with fine, old buildings and plenty of pedestrians on the sidewalk, but only light vehicle traffic.
The walkers then moved onto a path that led through a park-like setting for another half mile.
Finally, they ended their walk strolling through a busy, commercial district, with heavy automobile traffic and concrete buildings.
The walkers had been told to move at their own speed, not to rush or dawdle. Most finished the walk in about 25 minutes.
Throughout that time, the portable EEGs on their heads continued to feed information about brain wave patterns to the laptops they carried.
Afterward, the researchers compared the read-outs, looking for wave patterns that they felt were related to measures of frustration, directed attention (which they called “engagement”), mental arousal and meditativeness or calm.
What they found confirmed the idea that green spaces lessen brain fatigue.
When the volunteers made their way through the urbanized, busy areas, particularly the heavily trafficked commercial district at the end of their walk, their brain wave patterns consistently showed that they were more aroused, attentive and frustrated than when they walked through the parkland, where brain-wave readings became more meditative.
While traveling through the park, the walkers were mentally quieter.
Which is not to say that they weren’t paying attention, said Jenny Roe, a professor in the School of the Built Environment at Heriot-Watt University, who oversaw the study. “Natural environments still engage” the brain, she said, but the attention demanded “is effortless. It’s called involuntary attention in psychology. It holds our attention while at the same time allowing scope for reflection,” and providing a palliative to the nonstop attentional demands of typical, city streets.
Of course, her study was small, more of a pilot study of the nifty new, portable EEG technology than a definitive examination of the cognitive effects of seeing green.
But even so, she said, the findings were consistent and strong and, from the viewpoint of those of us over-engaged in attention-hogging urban lives, valuable. The study suggests that, right about now, you should consider “taking a break from work,” Dr. Roe said, and “going for a walk in a green space or just sitting, or even viewing green spaces from your office window.” This is not unproductive lollygagging, Dr. Roe helpfully assured us. “It is likely to have a restorative effect and help with attention fatigue and stress recovery.”

小漁民站出來，台灣電磁波規範轉向！

小漁民站出來，台灣電磁波規範轉向！

七股氣象雷達站距漁民工作場所只有100多米，設置前卻未評估雷達電磁波對健康有無風險。（攝影：許世穎）

       從臺十七線進入台南市七股鹽山，就可見七股氣象雷達站巨大的白色球體，矗立在波光粼粼的瀉湖上。11年來，這雷達站為台灣掌握西南海的降水、風場，但七 股區鹽埕裏這緊臨雷達的小漁村，卻疑似受到雷達電磁波影響，村民罹患疾病，甚至失去生命，寧靜村落無端起波瀾。

       經漫長抗爭，交部中央氣象局終於同意遷移雷達，在3月7日的說明會中與村民達成共識，預計2017年將雷達遷到距離現址鹽埕裏1.5公里處。

改變：居民生病死亡增加

       鹽埕裏村民早期曬鹽，現多數改做魚塭、養蚵，村落登記人口雖有五百多人，但多數青壯人口已外移，只見老人、小孩的身影。

       3月海風攜帶著陽光暖暖的氣息，漁民洪嘉模套上青蛙裝走進魚塭，抬頭看著藍天中的白色巨球：「你看這雷達這麼近，電磁波很強，我只要在這魚塭工作，回去後耳朵就嗡嗡叫、睡不著、人很累、很昏。」

       1994年中央氣象局將原位於高雄壽山的雷達站遷到七股，2002年6月1日正式運作。雷達距離最近的魚塭，只有100多米。

       依當時規定，設置雷達不須做環境影響評估，氣象局沒有舉辦說明會，也沒有評估電磁波對人體可能的影響。村民認為，以氣象局的專業，不會不知 道雷達電磁波有可能影響人體健康，把雷達設在距離村落這麼近的地方，無論有沒有法律規定都應該辦說明會，這樣對村民很不公平。

       5年後，部分村民陸續出現癌症、殘障、中風病例，例如洪嘉模的母親才60多歲，原本身體硬朗，突然記憶力減退，不久後就去世了。

       住在距離雷達最近的張黃阿冊，先生在雷達設置後不久中風去世，兩個兒子幼年時智力正常，小學時卻被檢查出智力不足。她自己從85公斤暴瘦到50公斤，牙齒差不多掉光，她常常在想：「真正是這個球仔害我的嗎？」

       村落陷入不平靜的氛圍，反七股氣象雷達自救會長總幹事李勝良懷疑這一切是否與雷達有關？2006年向環保聯盟陳情，當時的會長陳椒華調查後 發現，1996年到2001年間，村裏只有4名癌症死亡，2002年雷達設置後到2007年間新增14個癌症病例，約比設置前增加3倍。

       村民的疾病，真是雷達造成的嗎？

陳情：村民被譏精神異常
        隨後向環保署陳情，環保署量測結果，距離雷達100米內的電磁波最高0.00252毫瓦／cm²，距雷達100到500米的電磁波衰減到0.0005毫瓦／cm²。檢測值雖然都低於當時環保署公告的「電磁波環境建議值」1毫瓦／cm²，但也遠比雷達設置前的背景值高。

       2007年7月，村民首度北上中央氣象局陳情，張黃阿冊帶著兩個殘障兒子也來到台北，在氣象局大門外聲淚俱下。時任氣象局副局長、現任局長 辛在勤承諾，如果證實村民受害是因雷達而起，一定會遷移雷達。不過公害的因果關係難以認定，何況還要村民自己舉證，最後這場抗議也不了了之。

       但鹽埕村民並未放棄，長達數年持續到行政院、監察院、衛生署、環保署、立法院等機關陳情。然而電磁波看不見、摸不著，每個人對電磁波的敏感程度又不同，在無法舉證的情況下，村民的哭喊有時還被嘲笑是精神異常。

       前台南環盟理事長黃安調回想：「這些村民不認識字，到處被看不起，村民再多的眼淚，民代、官員都只是打馬虎眼而已。」

       當時鹽埕村民並非唯一的電磁波抗議者，同一時間許多因鄰近基地臺、高壓電塔的電磁波受害者也四處陳情，有關係的都私下請托遷走基地臺或高壓 電塔，但多數的陳情案件，包括氣象局在內的機關、業者都拿出「環境建議值」做為擋箭牌，只要量測值未超過環境建議值，就認為絕不會影響人民健康。

       但真的是這樣嗎？

       台灣國際非游離輻射防護委員會ICNIRP基於電磁波預防風險，1998年訂出「一般民眾暴露環境電磁場建議值」，極低頻833毫高斯、射頻1毫瓦／cm²。環保署也在2001年以相同的規範訂出環境建議值。

       陳椒華研究發現，「環境建議值」指的是「瞬間暴露建議值」，人體一旦暴露在這個值時會產生立即傷害，但並非人體長久處在環境建議值中可以安全無虞。

       國際癌症研究署IARC在2002年基於小兒白血病研究，將極低頻電磁波列為「2B級可能致癌物」，緊接著在2011年5月提出手機重度使用者罹患腦部神經膠質瘤的風險增加40％，並將射頻電磁波也列入「2B級可能致癌物」。

聲援：醫界出面提醒風險

       環保團體拿著國外的資訊四處遊說，所幸還有許多醫生、教授、立委、有心官員等私下協助，2011年1月12日台灣立法院通過國民黨團決議，請中央氣象局于2011年底前提遷移計劃，于2017年興建站房並遷移。

       然經過一年，七股氣象雷達遷移卻毫無動靜，後來傳出交通部不同意中央氣象局編列遷移預算。立法院衛環委員會召委劉建國舉行協調會，當場要求交通部承諾編列，才出現轉機。

       隨後劉建國于2011年5月，在立法院舉辦首場電磁波防治立法公聽會，這場鮑聽會也成為日後國內電磁波立法，以及風險觀念的重大轉折。

       當天多位醫師提醒應注意電磁波風險，例如台大創傷醫學部主治醫師許立民指出，長期暴露在三、四毫高斯以上的15歲以下兒童，小兒白血病危險率是兩倍以上。桃園敏盛醫院癌症治療中心執行長梁永昌表示，醫學上許多疾病原因都未可知，不能隨便訂一個安全值。

       連環保署空保處處長謝燕儒都說，台灣電力、電信發展時間都很短，誰也不能保證電磁波對人體絕對無害，最重要是建立電磁波風險與預防觀念、並持續研究。

 貢獻：環保署重訂新規範

       7日的遷移說明會上，鹽埕村民將「感謝遷走氣象雷達」布條貼在講臺前方，他們或不知道，自己所經歷的這場征戰，同時促成政府重新檢討電磁波風險規範。

       例如環保署2012年11月訂定「限制時變電場、磁場及電磁場暴露指引」，將「環境建議值」改稱「參考位準值」，明確定義這個值是「短期暴 露效應」，並不是「長期暴露的安全值」。並強調有關長期暴露的影響，依國際研究截至目前為止並無足夠證據顯示電磁波有因果關係，因此各部會都應訂定電磁波 預防措施。

       環保署提出「敏感地區新設非游離輻射設施長期暴露預防措施作業規範」草案，規範電力、電信設施，與學校、醫院、圖書館等敏感地區距離須達20米以上，唯業者與環團對此距離，仍在角力中。

       鹽埕裏村民終於爭取到雷達遷移，更想不到的是，中央氣象局官員專程到當地跟村民說明，這也是政府對於民主程式觀念的一大進步。如果早在雷達設置初期就能想到這些，村民、氣象局就能避免這10多年來無謂的糾纏。

       中央氣象局副局長張修武說，七股雷達遷移計劃得以繼續，得之於多項時機的配合。依規定再過幾年七股氣象雷達就到了更新年限，以此說服交通部提前遷移並更新。且台南市長賴清德支援遷移計劃，並提供合適地點，中央氣象局將在新雷達設置完成後即拆除舊雷達。

       電磁波強弱與距離有正相關，即使無法證明與疾病相關，不過也無法排除，只要在設置時選擇距離民眾住家，或工作場所較遠的地方，既不會影響天氣觀測，又能讓民眾遠離電磁波風險，政府任何施政如果都能多一點考量，才能真正共創雙贏。 （撰文：朱淑娟，商業週刊）

       小辭典＿電磁波

       電磁波頻率越高能量越強，當能量高到足以改變物質化學結構，稱為「游離輻射」，反之則稱為「非游離輻射」。非游離輻射分為極低頻、射頻電磁波，前者單位為毫高斯，後者為毫瓦。

       常見的極低頻電磁波來源，包括輸配電設施，電磁爐、吹風機、微波爐等家電用品。

       生活中處處有電磁波，若想增進電磁波防護知識，可參考「台灣電磁輻射公害防治協會」網站 http://tepca.org.tw/。

「週刊文春」︰中國劇毒食品

日媒︰中國銷日食品 連中國人也不敢吃

〔編譯林翠儀／綜合報導〕中國上海上月爆發上萬頭死豬塞爆黃浦江事件，近日又傳出新型禽流感死亡案例，連一海之隔的日本都人心惶惶。日本「週刊文春」上月深入中國浙江省嘉興市採訪，並以「中國劇毒食品」為主題，報導死豬扔河內幕及一份「連中國人也不敢吃的銷日食品名單」。

一名住在嘉興市東側嘉善縣的楊姓養豬戶，向週刊文春透露，他原本飼養五百頭豬，今年農曆新年時因寒流突然來襲，死了三百頭以上，這種事在以往從未發生過，豬舍室溫從白天三十度驟降到半夜零度，存活下來的仔豬也罹患肺炎，以前只要打預防針就沒事，現在卻完全無效。

死豬補助 進貪官口袋
楊 姓養豬戶坦承，往河裡扔死豬的人就是他，因為當地養豬戶也這麼做，而且是「不得不這麼做」。雖然透過村長向地方政府相關單位通報，一頭豬可領到八十元人民 幣（約三百八十四台幣）補助，但那些補助款全都落入官員口袋，養豬戶已沒錢挖洞消毒、掩埋死豬，而且就算想挖坑掩埋也埋不完。

養豬戶還透露，以前死豬還能送到黑市賤價販賣，一頭可賣到人民幣十元，然後送入肉品加工廠，但現在政府取締從嚴，對於血本無歸的養豬戶來說，最省錢、省事的方法就是將死豬往河裡扔。記者形容黃浦江上的死豬「像一顆顆小籠包似的腐肉」。

中 國和香港網路新聞一日也大量轉載中國死豬流入上海餐飲店的新聞。一名餐飲業者透露，養豬戶通常不會隨意丟棄死豬，而是以賤價賣出，商人以小貨車載往上海， 因為比較容易偽裝，一車能載個七、八頭，如果碰到檢驗檢疫人員，乾脆把車一扔落跑。這位業者還說，上海人以前不知道吃過多少死豬，只是自己不知道而已。

大 量死豬不是只有扔進河裡，也流入食品加工廠。「週刊文春」還列舉一份「連中國人也不敢吃的銷日食品名單」，其中包括小香腸、雞肉、蕎麥及蕎麥粉、黑輪（魚漿製 品）、肉包、葡萄乾、油條、烏龍茶、紅茶、韭菜、果汁、草莓及大閘蟹等。這些中國農漁產品或加工食品，有些在飼養或栽種過程中就被動了手腳，例如添加成長 促進劑、抗生素、劇毒農藥、殺蟲劑，或是水質本身已遭重金屬污染，有些在加工過程中添加有害健康的防腐劑，甚至為了讓病死豬肉吃起來口感較軟，還加了軟化 劑。

Cost of Environmental Damage in China Growing Rapidly Amid Industrialization

中國工業化的環境賬

黃安偉 報道 2013年04月01日

Sim Chi Yin for The New York Times

在北京東部，一座發電廠濃煙滾滾，工人們正在拆除一棟房子的牆壁。國有企業一再對遏制污染的政策加以阻撓。

北京——中國一家官方媒體上周報道，2010年，中國環境退化成本約為2300億美元（15389.5億元），佔中國國內生產總值的3.5%，以人民幣計算相當於2004年的三倍。
上述數據來自中國環境保護部環境規劃院所做的一項研究。

2300億美元（1.54萬億元人民幣）的數字是根據生態環境遭到污染和破壞而引發的成本計算的，是中國為自己的快速工業化付出的代價。
“這觸及中國面臨的經濟挑戰的核心：如何從過去30年的爆炸式增長轉變到未來30年的可持續增長，”研究公司環球通視(IHS Global Insight)關注中國的經濟學家阿利斯泰爾·桑頓(Alistair Thornton)說。“先挖個大坑，再把坑填平就會產生GDP的增長，但這樣做並不會帶來經濟價值。過去幾年，中國的大量經濟活動都是挖坑再填坑，從救助岌岌可危的太陽能企業，到無視經濟增長的‘外部性’，概莫能外。”

他表示，成本可能比環保部的估計還要高。2300億美元這個數字是不全面的，因為研究人員並沒有完整的數據。桑頓稱，因此，進行類似的計算“異常困難”。

環保部下屬的一份報紙上周一報道了2010年的相關數據，到目前為止，這項研究只公布了部分結果。2006年，環保部開始發佈由環境退化造成的成本的估計數字。環保部只是間斷性地發佈數據，不過其最初目標是為所謂的“綠色GDP”進行年度核算。

全國範圍內環境迅速遭到破壞，這已經成了許多中國人最為關注的問題。今年1月，中國北方的空氣污染程度達到了創紀錄的水平，遠遠超出了西方環保機構所認為的危險水平，導致民怨沸騰。公眾的憤怒迫使宣傳部門的官員允許中國官方新聞機構更坦率地報道污染問題。

主張環保的政府官員想要實行緩解污染的政策，但石油及能源產業的國有企業卻總是加以阻撓。

公眾對水污染和土壤污染也一直存在憂慮。在為上海提供飲用水的河流中，發現至少1.6萬頭死豬，這給上海敲響了警鐘。上周，中國中央電視台報道，河 南省某村農民使用造紙廠的廢水灌溉小麥。但是一位農民說，他們自己不敢吃這些小麥。這些小麥被賣到村外，最終可能流向城裡，而農民們種植自己吃的小麥時用 的是井水。

上周五，中國官方英文報紙《中國日報》報道，北京市政府於周四公布了一項三年計劃的具體措施，該計劃旨在遏制各種形式的污染。報道援引北京市長王安順的話說，污水處理、垃圾焚燒和植樹造林工程將花費至少160億美元（約合1000億元人民幣）。

2006年，環境部稱，2004年的環境退化成本超過620億美元，佔GDP總量的3.05%。2010年，環境部公布了2008年環境退化成本的 部分結果，總計約為1850億美元，佔GDP的3.9%。一些外國學者對中國研究人員的計算方法提出了批評，稱他們在計算中沒有包含一些關鍵的環境退化指 標。

現在人們一致認為，中國近幾十年來兩位數的經濟增長造成了巨大的環境代價。但是增長仍然是首要目標，共產黨執政的合法性很大程度上依賴於經濟的迅速 增長，而且中國官方預計，今年的GDP增長將為7.5%，在截止於2015年的五年計劃里，年均經濟增長率為7%。2012年，中國GDP總量約為8.3 萬億美元。德意志銀行(Deutsche Bank)上個月發佈的一份報告稱，當前的增長政策，將使環境在未來十年中繼續急劇惡化，特別是考慮到預期煤炭消耗量，以及預計汽車銷量會激增的情況下。

黃安偉(Edward Wong)是《紐約時報》駐京記者。Patrick Zuo對本文有研究貢獻。
翻譯：陳亦亭、梁英

Cost of Environmental Damage in China Growing Rapidly Amid Industrialization

By EDWARD WONG April 01, 2013

 

BEIJING — The cost of environmental degradation in China was about $230 billion in 2010, or 3.5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product — three times that in 2004, in local currency terms, an official Chinese news report said this week.
The statistic came from a study by the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, which is part of the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

The figure of $230 billion, or 1.54 trillion renminbi, is based on costs arising from pollution and damage to the ecosystem, the price that China is paying for its rapid industrialization.
“This cuts to the heart of China’s economic challenge: how to transform from the explosive growth of the past 30 years to the sustainable growth of the next 30 years,” said Alistair Thornton, a China economist at the research firm IHS Global Insight. “Digging a hole and filling it back in again gives you G.D.P. growth. It doesn’t give you economic value. A lot of the activity in China over the last few years has been digging holes to fill them back in again — anything from bailing out failing solar companies to ignoring the ‘externalities’ of economic growth.”

And the costs could be even higher than the ministry’s estimate, he said. The $230 billion figure is incomplete because the researchers did not have a full set of data. Making such calculations is “notoriously difficult,” Mr. Thornton said.

The 2010 figure was reported on Monday by a newspaper associated with the ministry, and so far only partial results of the study are available. In 2006, the ministry began releasing an estimate of the cost of environmental degradation. The ministry has issued statistics only intermittently, though its original goal was to do the calculation — what it called “green G.D.P.” — annually.

The rapidly eroding environment across the country has become an issue of paramount concern to many Chinese. In January, outrage boiled over as air pollution in north China reached record levels, well beyond what Western environmental agencies consider hazardous. The public fury forced propaganda officials to allow official Chinese news organizations to report more candidly on the pollution.

Chinese state-owned enterprises in the oil and power industries have consistently blocked efforts by pro-environment government officials to impose policies that would alleviate the pollution.

There have also been constant concerns over water and soil pollution. The discovery of at least 16,000 dead pigs in rivers that supply drinking water to Shanghai has ignited alarm there. This week, China Central Television reported that farmers in a village in Henan Province were using wastewater from a paper mill to grow wheat. But one farmer said they would not dare to eat the wheat themselves. It is sold outside the village, perhaps ending up in cities, while the farmers grow their own wheat with well water.

The Beijing government on Thursday released details of a three-year plan that is aimed at curbing various forms of pollution, according to a report on Friday in China Daily, an official English-language newspaper. The report quoted Wang Anshun, Beijing’s mayor, as saying that sewage treatment, garbage incineration and forestry development would cost at least $16 billion.

In 2006, the environmental ministry said the cost of environmental degradation in 2004 was more than $62 billion, or 3.05 percent of G.D.P. In 2010, it released partial results for 2008 that totaled about $185 billion, or 3.9 percent of G.D.P. Several foreign scholars have criticized the methods by which Chinese researchers have reached those numbers, saying some crucial measures of environmental degradation are not included in the calculations.
There is consensus now that China’s decades of double-digit economic growth exacted an enormous environmental cost. But growth remains the priority; the Communist Party’s legitimacy is based largely on rapidly expanding the economy, and China officially estimates that its G.D.P., which was $8.3 trillion in 2012, will grow at a rate of 7.5 percent this year and at an average of 7 percent in the five-year plan that runs to 2015. A Deutsche Bank report released last month said the current growth policies would lead to a continuing steep decline of the environment for the next decade, especially given the expected coal consumption and boom in automobile sales.

Patrick Zuo contributed research.