世界上最糟糕的空气，不在北京也不在新德里

特木科（Temuco）坐落在智利中部的一个山谷里，靠近湖泊和雪山，却是世界上污染最严重的城市之一。每年冬天，特木科的全球空气质量排名都会跌入谷底。和其他空气污染严重的城市不同，这个智利小城的污染并不是来自于庞大的人口数量、24小时不断的交通和工厂活动，而是来自于贫穷。

6月至8月，当南半球处于冬季时，特木科的温度会降到4摄氏度。贫穷的特木科人，别无选择，只能烧便宜的湿柴来取暖。60岁的特木科居民帕特里夏-布拉沃(Patricia Bravo)说，从她客厅的窗户里，有时只能看到半个街区，其余的地方都是灰色的烟雾。"这就像生活在一个永久有雾的城市，"Bravo说。她从年轻时就住在那里。她已经习惯了冬天时眼睛发痒和客厅里浓重的烟味，关窗户也无济于事。根据彭博绿色社和非营利组织OpenAQ汇编的数据，在过去的八周里，特木科至少有五天的空气质量是世界上最差的。而根据瑞士咨询公司IQAir的2019年年度报告，南美30个污染最严重的城市中，有25个在智利。

随着空气的恶化，一系列的健康疾病也会随之而来。费尔南多-拉纳说，他在特木科担任心脏病专家的40年里，每年冬天都会看到这种循环。"污染水平与心脏病或心力衰竭的就诊人数之间几乎有着完美的关联，"拉纳说。今年，随着COVID-19在美洲的爆发，这一趋势尤其令特木科的居民和卫生官员感到不安。在拉丁美洲，已经有超过360万人感染。4月，特木科成为智利首批被隔离的城市之一。有可能是由于大家都被迫呆在室内，家庭壁炉的污染增加了。燃烧木材会产生烟尘和微小颗粒，研究表明，这些颗粒最终会进入身体的几乎每一个器官，增加心脏问题、中风、哮喘、肺炎和肺癌的风险。哈佛大学4月发表、5月更新的一项研究发现，每立方米中仅增加1微克的小颗粒物暴露量，就会使COVID-19的死亡率增加8%。

Nestled in a valley in central Chile, near lakes and snowcapped mountains, sits one of the world’s most polluted cities. Every winter, sleepy Temuco plunges to the bottom of global air quality rankings. While notoriously polluted megacities such as Beijing and New Delhi have populations almost 100 times that of the tiny Chilean town, contributing to round the clock traffic and factory activity, Temuco’s contamination doesn’t come from economic activity. It comes from poverty. June though August, when the Southern Hemisphere is in winter, thermometers in Temuco drop to as low as 4? Celsius (39? Fahrenheit). Poor temuquenses, as the city’s 220,000 residents are known, have no choice but to burn cheap—often wet—firewood to keep warm. From the window of her living room, 60-year-old resident Patricia Bravo says she can sometimes only see half a block down the street in her Temuco neighborhood. The rest is all gray smoke. “It’s like living in a city with permanent fog, except it’s chimney smoke,” says Bravo, who’s lived there since she was a young girl. She’s gotten used to itchy eyes and the smell of heavy smoke in her living room this winter, she says, even when her own chimney is dark and her windows are closed. According to data compiled by Bloomberg Green and the non-profit OpenAQ, Temuco had the worst air quality in the world at least five days in the last eight weeks, including back-to-back on July 8 and 9. Twenty-five of South America’s 30 most polluted cities are in Chile, according to a 2019 annual report by Swiss consulting firm IQAir. As the air gets worse, so do a range of health ailments. It’s a cycle Fernando Lana says he’s seen play out every winter in the 40 years he’s worked as a cardiologist in Temuco. “There’s almost a perfect correlation between contamination levels and visits to the doctor for heart diseases or cardiac failure,” Lana says.

The trend is especially troubling this year to both residents and health officials as Covid-19 explodes in the Americas. More than 3.6 million people have been infected by the potentially deadly disease in Latin America. In April, Temuco became one of the first Chilean cities put under quarantine. It’s possible that, by forcing everyone to stay indoors, pollution from household fireplaces increased. The burning of wood creates soot and microscopic particles that, studies show, end up in almost every organ of the body, increasing the risk of heart problems, strokes, asthma, pneumonia and lung cancer. A study published in April and updated in May by Harvard University found that increased exposure to small airborne particulate matter of just 1 microgram per cubic meter increases Covid-19 death rates by 8%.  source

指尖新闻：高信噪比，一目了然

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