科学是如何消除吸入健康风险的

For a quick summary of the fight for clean air over the past century, look out of any office window.

Odds are your view won't be obscured by dangerous smog – or by clouds of cigarette smoke. 在过去一个世纪的大部分沙巴足球体育平台里，这是不可想象的.

“甚至从20世纪80年代开始，空气污染就急剧下降了。. Robert Brook, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Wayne State University in Detroit. He can see the improvement just by watching the background when movies from that era come on. “这种变化太神奇了. 它发生得很慢，以至于人们没有注意到它."

这一变化源于科学家之间的互动, 公众和他们的政府一直延续到今天, 他和其他专家说. 这门科学涉及具有复杂名称和大量数据的粒子, 但利害关系再简单不过了.

很多人都听说过, “你吃什么就是什么," said Brook, 谁从上世纪90年代就开始研究空气污染了. 他的说法是:“你呼吸什么，你就是什么."

Discussions about smoking and air pollution often focus on cancer, asthma and other lung diseases. 但我们吸入的气体对心脏和大脑健康也有很大影响.

We now know that even a few cigarettes a day or exposure to secondhand smoke can sharply increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. Air pollution, meanwhile, 会增加心脏病发作的风险吗, 中风和心血管疾病死亡.

The story of how science came to understand that doesn't begin in the 20th century, said Dr. 桑杰Rajagopalan, chief of cardiovascular medicine and chief academic and scientific officer at the University Hospitals Harrington Heart and Vascular Institute in Cleveland. He's also a professor of medicine and biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve University.

Rajagopalan, who worked with Brook on some of the first articles about air pollution and heart disease, 他说，“自从人类发现火以来”，肮脏的空气一直是一个问题."

The U.S. 这个故事可以从香烟开始.

Tobacco – which contains the highly addictive substance nicotine and other harmful chemicals – had been grown in the Americas for thousands of years, 但正如Allan M. 勃兰特2007年的《沙巴体育平台点击进入》,“技术的结合, 业务操作, 市场营销和不断变化的社会规范改变了美国.S. 变成了一个吸烟的国家. 1900年，美国成年人平均每人每年抽54支烟. 到1963年，这一数字达到峰值，估计为4345人 2007 report 也就是现在的美国国家医学院.

随之而来的是肺癌发病率的惊人上升, 是什么刺激了医学研究的创新.

最早的一些关于吸烟的研究是在英国由Dr. 理查德·多尔博士. 奥斯汀·布拉德福德山. 他们最初的工作, in 1950, 将709名肺癌患者与同等数量的非癌症患者进行比较. 随后，他们对4万名医生进行了一项具有里程碑意义的调查. The results, 出版于1956年, showed that deaths from lung cancer and heart disease were related to how much someone smoked.

到1960年，美国心脏协会 ready to say, "the data strongly suggest that heavy cigarette smoking may contribute to or accelerate the development of coronary heart disease or its complications."

烟草业极力制造混乱, 因此，研究人员必须建立一个牢不可破的案例来解释风险. The U.S. 外科医生的 1964年关于吸烟与健康的报告 did just that. 它不仅宣称吸烟是导致癌症的原因, but it also helped establish the modern framework for using data from epidemiological surveys to make connections that couldn't come from simply studying cells under a microscope.

当时，健康倡导者和烟草公司之间的斗争几乎没有得到解决, 但这是一个转折点. 1965年，将近42%的美国人.S. 成年人——包括卫生局局长Dr. 路德·特里都是吸烟者. 根据最新数据，到2021年 疾病控制和预防中心的数据, only 11.5% were.

一种导致变化的危机模式也随着空气污染展开.

In 1948, 致命的烟雾在多诺拉形成, Pennsylvania, 造成至少20人死亡，数千人患病. 四年后，“伦敦大烟雾”造成多达1.2万人死亡.

这些和其他沙巴体育平台点击进入推动了1970年美国《沙巴足球体育平台》的通过.S.Rajagopalan认为这是空气质量“巨大”改善的原因. Since that law took effect, levels of regulated pollutants have dropped 78%, according to the 环境保护署.

这种模式会在吸二手烟时重演. 关于其危险性的第一次大型研究出现在20世纪80年代初. 到1990年，美国大部分地区都禁止吸烟.S. flights. 在接下来的几年里, 许多州将通过法律，要求工作场所和公共场所禁烟, 包括酒吧和餐馆.

Dr. Stacey Alexeeff, a research scientist and biostatistician at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, 科学家说, 公众和监管机构相互影响. 公众的强烈抗议导致了《沙巴足球体育平台》的出台, 法规要求对污染进行监测, 哪个提供了更多关于健康影响的数据. 这些发现导致了保护健康的法规的变化.

布鲁克说，他自己的作品也遵循了这样的道路. 在90年代中期, he was launching his career just as some of the first work linking air pollution with cardiovascular disease was being done. 对新污染标准的法律挑战导致需要进行更多的研究. 2004年，他能够领导一个专家小组撰写AHA 科学声明 that saw "a strong case that air pollution increases the risk of cardiovascular disease" but also that more research was needed.

By 2010, 他领导了另一个美国心脏协会小组, 这个包括拉贾戈帕兰, 能够宣布被称为PM 2的微观污染物颗粒.5、或烟灰，可引起心血管疾病和死亡. 今年2月，环保署宣布 tighter limits on such pollutants, the main sources of which are diesel and car exhaust and coal-fired power plants.

在过去的一个世纪里，关于科学和研究的许多事情发生了根本性的变化. Thanks to technology, the cycle of science and policy is speeding up, Rajagopalan said. “在医学和公共卫生的各个领域，反馈循环越来越快."

Alexeeff said that researchers today are emphasizing connections between clean air and socioeconomic status. "The question of how do we protect the most vulnerable populations is a really important one," she said.

但当前的一些问题与过去一样. 直到大众开始吸烟多年后，香烟的问题才显现出来. Today, the advent of vaping is exposing people to chemicals whose effects are only beginning to be understood.

And just as in the days of the original Clean Air Act and the first studies on smoking, 谈论监管把空气问题变成了一个政治问题. “我不是政治家,拉贾戈帕兰说, 但一个简单的事实是，民选官员可以改变清洁空气的未来.

对于研究人员来说，未来最大的问题是气候变化.

Rajagopalan has written that higher temperatures boost ozone levels while also increasing risks of wildfires and dust storms, 哪些会产生损害心脏健康的污染物. Researchers also will need to identify the best ways to protect people from such problems – whether it's masks, 空气过滤器或其他东西, Brook said.

他回忆起去年夏天, smoke from Canadian wildfires unexpectedly blanketed Detroit and other portions of the Midwest and East Coast, 给他们带来了世界上最严重的空气污染. Brook drew parallels to the "massive public health catastrophes" of London and Donora that reshaped public opinion.

他说，这将塑造未来. “如果公众不要求，什么也不会发生."

Brook said he wished people were more aware of just how much their health depended on clean air – and how much better things had gotten.

"Science informs; the bureaucrats can make decisions," he said. “我们需要意识到在我们的一生中有多少好处, 这对我们有多重要."