纽约时报：北京空气质量比印度新德里高出一截

印度新德里比北京空气差得多，为何美国大使馆不监测、公布新德里的PM2.5数据？《纽约时报》细究新德里的空气污染状况，观察者网全文翻译如下：

《纽约时报》1月26日报道，1月中旬，北京的空气污染程度增高，政府发布警告，并关闭了四条高架。人们出于恐慌心情而购买空气净化器和口罩。可是，新德里弥漫着某种程度上更为危险的黄色浓雾，印度媒体和推特却极少发出警示信息。

虽然北京的空气污染程度在世界大城市中居于前列，但对比新德里与北京的每日空气污染数据，可以发现，新德里的空气污染颗粒更加严重、污染天数更多。拿最近几天来看，在北京看来非常糟糕的空气，基本上在新德里可以天天看到。

位于北京的美国驻华大使馆1月中旬发布警告，称今年以来首次PM2.5浓度超过500。

但根据旁遮普巴格（Punjabi Bagh，新德里郊区——观察者网注）的监测数据，今年的前三个星期，新德里平均每天的PM2.5浓度达到473，是北京前三周平均值的两倍。旁遮普巴格的数据通常要比印度其他城市和独立监测机构的数据低。1月15日是北京PM2.5今年首度突破500的日子，而新德里今年已经有8天超过500了。实际上，今年以来，新德里只有1天的数据低于300，而300乃是世界卫生组织推荐值得12倍。

今年以来的PM2.5数值

“舆论关注焦点总是中国而非印度，这让我颇为不解。”耶鲁大学环境法与政策研究中心的环境评估项目负责人徐安琪表示，“中国已经意识到必须保持信息透明，而印度则丝毫没有感受到完善空气指标公布的压力。所以，印度的数据透明度不如中国。”

专家们早就知道印度的空气污染程度在世界上数一数二。耶鲁大学最近的一项研究表明，世界上受空气污染伤害最大的10个城市（原文为“国家”，疑误——观察者网注）中，有7个位于南亚。印度人为空气污染付出的代价几乎是最高的。最近一项研究显示，印度人的肺功能是世界上最差的，比中国人要差得多。研究者们猜测，印度糟糕的空气、卫生条件和饮用水造就了世界上对肺功能伤害最严重的地域。

据世界卫生组织数据，印度拥有世界上最高的慢性呼吸道疾病死亡率，以及最多的哮喘病死亡人数。根据位于浦那（印度西部城市——观察者网注）的胸科研究基金会主任桑蒂普•萨尔维（Sundeep Salvi），近期研究表明，印度的就医人数中，有一半人是为了呼吸道问题。

 “亚洲清洁空气”组织（Clean Air Asia）发现，2011年北京PM10的六个月平均值是117。“科学与环境研究中心”（Center for Science and Environment）根据新德里官方数据计算，得出新德里2011年的PM10平均值是281，几乎是北京的2.5倍。

也许更令人担忧的是，新德里今年的颗粒物污染数值比去年高44%，达到328。颗粒物污染与过早死亡、心脏病突发、中风和心力衰竭与密切关系。去年10月，世界卫生组织称颗粒物污染可能导致肺癌。

美国驻华大使馆在推特公布北京的空气污染数值，帮助提高公众意识。其数据在推特上拥有逾3.5万名关注者。位于新德里的美国驻印度大使馆没有类似监测，称印度政府自己会公布空气污染数值。

在中国，许多城市居民都被空气污染吓坏了，一些政府官员表示，遏制污染将是首要任务。

但在印度，新德里的新一届地方政府并没有将治理空气污染列入政府18项重点任务。印度环境部长因为拖延重大工业工程而饱受批评，最终于去年12月辞职。而印度石油部长接替了这一职位，并立即签署了几项可能造成严重污染的大项目。印度和中国都在去年11月的全球气候谈判中强烈反对设置污染限额。

一家瑞士的空气净化器制造公司IQAir总经理弗兰克•哈姆斯（Frank Hammes）表示，该公司在中国的销量是印度的几百倍。

“在中国，人们特别关心空气，尤其是为了小孩子。”哈姆斯说，“为什么印度人不关心，我也不知道。”

对于空气污染，新德里居民在采访中表露出既无视、又绝望的复杂心情。“我觉得空气污染对新德里不是大问题。” 20岁男青年阿康克沙•辛格（Akanksha Singh）说。他是学工程学的，住在新德里郊区。他说，新德里的空气问题至少比邻近其他城市好一些。

1998年，印度最高法院裁定，新德里的出租车、三轮车和巴士必须采用天然气，但效果只持续了一段时间。路上的车越来越多，1970年代新德里大约有80万辆车，而现在约有750万辆，平均每天新增1400辆。

“空气比以前差很多。”科学与环境研究中心主任阿努米塔•罗伊•乔杜里（Anumita Roy Chowdhury）说。

印度人不是第一天发现他们的肺功能较差，但许多研究者长期以来将其归咎于基因。

2010年的一项研究发现，在印度出生、美国长大的儿童比土生土长的印度儿童拥有更健康的肺功能。

“这不是基因问题，主要是环境因素。”加拿大麦克马斯特大学呼吸系统学助理教授麦林•杜恩（MyLinh Duong）说。

杜恩在去年10月发表的报告中比较了17个国家、38717个人的肺功能数据。该报告排除了吸烟者，并根据身高、年龄和性别相互匹配。结果显示，印度人的肺功能是其中最差的。

上述事实导致印度的一些有钱人考虑出国。

私募基金投资者阿纳特•简恩（Annat Jain）2001年返回印度，此前，他在美国生活了12年。他说，去年呼吸道问题加重了父亲的病情，最终因心力衰竭去世。现在，他4岁的女儿必须每两天接受一次呼吸系统治疗。

“我们一出国，呼吸就恢复正常了。”他说，“我和妻子常聊这事儿。”

（翻页阅读原文）

Beijing’s Bad Air Would Be Step Up for Smoggy Delhi

By GARDINER HARRISJAN. 25, 2014

NEW DELHI — In mid-January, air pollution in Beijing was so bad that the government issued urgent health warnings and closed four major highways, prompting the panicked buying of air filters and donning of face masks. But in New Delhi, where pea-soup smog created what was by some measurements even more dangerous air, there were few signs of alarm in the country’s boisterous news media, or on its effervescent Twittersphere.

Despite Beijing’s widespread reputation of having some of the most polluted air of any major city in the world, an examination of daily pollution figures collected from both cities suggests that New Delhi’s air is more laden with dangerous small particles of pollution, more often, than Beijing’s. Lately, a very bad air day in Beijing is about an average one in New Delhi.

The United States Embassy in Beijing sent out warnings in mid-January, when a measure of harmful fine particulate matter known as PM2.5 went above 500, in the upper reaches of the measurement scale, for the first time this year. This refers to particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, which is believed to pose the greatest health risk because it penetrates deeply into lungs.

But for the first three weeks of this year, New Delhi’s average daily peak reading of fine particulate matter from Punjabi Bagh, a monitor whose readings are often below those of other city and independent monitors, was 473, more than twice as high as the average of 227 in Beijing. By the time pollution breached 500 in Beijing for the first time on the night of Jan. 15, Delhi had already had eight such days. Indeed, only once in three weeks did New Delhi’s daily peak value of fine particles fall below 300, a level more than 12 times the exposure limit recommended by the World Health Organization.

“It’s always puzzled me that the focus is always on China and not India,” said Dr. Angel Hsu, director of the environmental performance measurement program at the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. “China has realized that it can’t hide behind its usual opacity, whereas India gets no pressure to release better data. So there simply isn’t good public data on India like there is for China.”

Experts have long known that India’s air is among the worst in the world. A recent analysis by Yale researchers found that seven of the 10 countries with the worst air pollution exposures are in South Asia. And evidence is mounting that Indians pay a higher price for air pollution than almost anyone. A recent study showed that Indians have the world’s weakest lungs, with far less capacity than Chinese lungs. Researchers are beginning to suspect that India’s unusual mix of polluted air, poor sanitation and contaminated water may make the country among the most dangerous in the world for lungs.

India has the world’s highest death rate because of chronic respiratory diseases, and it has more deaths from asthma than any other nation, according to the World Health Organization. A recent study found that half of all visits to doctors in India are for respiratory problems, according to Sundeep Salvi, director of the Chest Research Foundation in Pune.

Clean Air Asia, an advocacy group, found that another common measure of pollution known as PM10, for particulate matter less than 10 micrometers in diameter, averaged 117 in Beijing in a six-month period in 2011. In New Delhi, the Center for Science and Environment used government data and found that an average measure of PM10 in 2011 was 281, nearly two-and-a-half times higher.

Perhaps most worrisome, Delhi’s peak daily fine particle pollution levels are 44 percent higher this year than they were last year, when they averaged 328 over the first three weeks of the year. Fine particle pollution has been strongly linked with premature death, heart attacks, strokes and heart failure. In October, the World Health Organization declared that it caused lung cancer.

The United States Embassy in Beijing posts on Twitter the readings of its air monitor, helping to spur awareness of the problem. The readings have more than 35,000 followers. The United States does not release similar readings from its New Delhi Embassy, saying the Indian government releases its own figures.

In China, concerns about air quality have transfixed many urban residents, and some government officials say curbing the pollution is a priority.

But in India, Delhi’s newly elected regional government did not mention air pollution among its 18 priorities, and India’s environment minister quit in December amid widespread criticism that she was delaying crucial industrial projects. Her replacement, the government’s petroleum minister, almost immediately approved several projects that could add considerably to pollution. India and China strenuously resisted pollution limits in global climate talks in Warsaw in November.

Frank Hammes, chief executive of IQAir, a Swiss-based maker of air filters, said his company’s sales were hundreds of times higher in China than in India.

“In China, people are extremely concerned about the air, especially around small children,” Mr. Hammes said. “Why there’s not the same concern in India is puzzling.”

In multiple interviews, Delhiites expressed a mixture of unawareness and despair about the city’s pollution levels. “I don’t think pollution is a major concern for Delhi,” said Akanksha Singh, a 20-year-old engineering student who lives on Delhi’s outskirts in Ghaziabad, adding that he felt that Delhi’s pollution problems were not nearly as bad as those of surrounding towns.

In 1998, India’s Supreme Court ordered that Delhi’s taxis, three-wheelers and buses be converted to compressed natural gas, but the resulting improvements in air quality were short-lived as cars flooded the roads. In the 1970s, Delhi had about 800,000 vehicles; now it has 7.5 million, with 1,400 more added daily.

“Now the air is far worse than it ever was,” said Anumita Roy Chowdhury, executive director of the Center for Science and Environment.

Indians’ relatively poor lung function has long been recognized, but researchers assumed for years that the difference was genetic.

Then a 2010 study found that the children of Indian immigrants who were born and raised in the United States had far better lung function than those born and raised in India.

“It’s not genetics; it’s mostly the environment,” said Dr. MyLinh Duong, an assistant professor of respirology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

In a study published in October, Dr. Duong compared lung tests taken in 38,517 healthy nonsmokers from 17 countries who were matched by height, age and sex. Indians’ lung function was by far the lowest among those tested.

All of this has led some wealthy Indians to consider leaving.

Annat Jain, a private equity investor who returned to India in 2001 after spending 12 years in the United States, said his father died last year of heart failure worsened by breathing problems. Now his 4-year-old daughter must be given twice-daily breathing treatments.

“But whenever we leave the country, everyone goes back to breathing normally,” he said. “It’s something my wife and I talk about constantly.”

Malavika Vyawahare contributed reporting from New Delhi, and Edward Wong from Beijing.

A version of this article appears in print on January 26, 2014, on page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: Beijing’s Bad Air Would Be Step Up for Smoggy Delhi. Order Reprints|Today’s Paper|Subscribe

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