好英语网你家的燃气灶到底有多“脏”？
Every morning, as millions of Americans light up the gas stoves in their kitchens to heat some water or griddle their hash browns, they aren’t just sending delicious breakfast smells wafting through their homes. The blue flames also emit harmful pollutants like nitrogen dioxides, as well as planet-warming gases.
每天早晨，当成百上千万美国人在厨房点燃燃气灶烧开水或者做土豆煎饼时，飘过家中的不仅是早餐的香味。蓝色的火焰还会释放出有害的污染物，比如二氧化氮，以及导致地球变暖的气体。
So a team of scientists from Stanford recently embarked on a testing tour of New York City apartments to better understand the extent of the pollution and how it flows from room to room in people’s real homes. It’s part of a 10-city study that is already showing how contaminants can quickly drift into living rooms and bedrooms, sometimes far beyond the stoves that created them.
因此，斯坦福大学的一组科学家最近开始了对纽约市公寓的一系列测试，以便更好地了解污染的程度，以及污染是如何在真实家庭中从一个房间流向另一个房间。这是一项针对10个城市的研究的一部分，该研究展示了污染物如何迅速进入客厅和卧室，有时远远超出了产生污染的炉灶所在的区域。
Concerns over the health and climate effects of gas-burning stoves have already prompted some cities and states to seek to phase out natural gas connections in new buildings, and the federal government has also moved to strengthen efficiency standards for gas stoves. But the issue has become a polarizing one. Last week in Washington, Republicans convened a hearing of the House Oversight Committee “examining the Biden administration’s regulatory assault on Americans’ gas stoves.”
由于担心燃气灶对健康和气候的影响，一些城市和州已经开始寻求在新建筑中逐步淘汰天然气接入，联邦政府也开始加强燃气灶的能效标准。但这已经成为一个两极化的问题。上周，共和党人在华盛顿召开了众议院监督委员会听证会，“审查拜登政府对美国燃气灶的监管攻击。”
On a crisp Sunday morning, the Stanford scientists made their first stop in New York City: a public-housing project in Morningside Heights in Upper Manhattan. Their first challenge: hauling 300 pounds of equipment to the 18th floor. “Hope there’s an elevator,” Rob Jackson, a professor at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and the team’s leader, said warily. (There was.)
在一个清爽的周日早晨，斯坦福大学的科学家们来到了他们在纽约市的第一站：曼哈顿上城晨边高地的一个公共住房项目。他们的第一个挑战是把约136公斤重的设备搬到18楼。“希望能有电梯，”斯坦福大学多尔可持续发展学院教授、团队负责人罗布·杰克逊担心地说。(的确有电梯。)
The three-bedroom apartment they were visiting — home to Tina Johnson, a mother to three adult children — overlooks elevated train tracks and has an eat-in kitchen filled with the aromas of herbs and spices that she uses to make her favorite dish, an American-style ratatouille. Mrs. Johnson had just cooked a breakfast of fried eggs and potatoes.
他们访问的这套三居室公寓是蒂娜·约翰逊的家，她有三个已经成年的孩子。这套公寓俯瞰高架铁轨，厨房里都是香草和香料的香味，她用它们来做她最喜欢的一道菜——美式焖蔬菜。约翰逊刚刚做了一份包括煎鸡蛋和土豆的早餐。
“I’m glad you’re here,” she told the researchers. A new stove had just been installed in her unit, but she still “can’t stand the smell” of the gas from it, she said. She had volunteered to participate in the study through a local climate group, Mrs. Johnson said, because she and her children have asthma and other health problems; she was eager to know what their stove did to the air they breathed.
“我很高兴你们能来，”她告诉研究人员。她说，她的公寓刚刚安装了一个新炉灶，但她仍然“受不了”炉灶里煤气的味道。约翰逊说，她是通过当地一个气候组织自愿参加这项研究的，因为她和她的孩子们有哮喘和其他健康问题；她很想知道他们的炉子对他们呼吸的空气造成了什么影响。
Nose-High Tubes
齐鼻高度的管子
The researchers got to work powering up their analyzers and setting up tubes, at roughly nose height, to pull in samples of air. After they took background readings, it was time to turn on the gas, a single small burner on high.
研究人员开始启动分析仪，并在大约齐鼻的高度设置管子，以吸入空气样本。在取完背景读数后，可以打开煤气了，他们将一个炉头开到大火。
The machinery quickly detected the change: a rise in concentrations of nitrogen dioxide — which, among other negative health effects, can irritate the respiratory system, aggravate symptoms of respiratory diseases and contribute to asthma. Concentrations climbed to 500 parts per billion, five times the safety benchmark for one-hour exposures set by the Environmental Protection Agency. (Concentrations of benzene, a human carcinogen that is present in cigarette smoke and car emissions, also tripled.)
机器很快检测到变化：二氧化氮浓度上升——这种物质会对健康产生各种负面影响，包括刺激呼吸系统，加重呼吸系统疾病的症状，并导致哮喘。浓度攀升至10亿分之500，是环保局设定的一小时暴露安全基准的五倍。（苯的浓度也增加了两倍，这是一种存在于香烟烟雾和汽车尾气中的致癌物。）
This was with the kitchen doorway sealed off and the window closed, too. Mrs. Johnson’s kitchen also lacks a stove hood, which could help with ventilation.
这是在厨房门封死、窗户关闭的情况下。约翰逊的厨房还没有安装有助于通风的油烟机。
Opening the kitchen entrance and cracking open the window, as Mrs. Johnson said she often did while cooking, brought nitrogen dioxide levels down to about 200 parts per billion. But that also meant fumes from the stove were now seeping into the rest of the apartment.
约翰逊打开了厨房门和窗户，她说在做饭的时候一般都会开着门窗，这样做可以把二氧化氮浓度降到10亿分之200左右。但是这也意味着油烟味会飘进其它房间。
In one bedroom, nitrogen dioxide concentrations reached about 70 parts per billion, below the E.P.A. threshold but significantly above the World Health Organization’s standards for chronic exposure.
其中一间卧室的二氧化氮浓度达到10亿分之70左右，低于环保局阈值，但远高于世卫组织的长时间曝露标准。
There has been mounting scientific evidence of the health risks of gas stoves. One paper published late last year found that gas stoves may be linked to nearly 13 percent of childhood cases of asthma in the United States. Previous research shows that gas stoves have led to more exacerbated asthma symptoms as well.
越来越多的科学证据在证明，燃气炉构成健康风险。去年底发表的一篇论文发现，美国儿童哮喘病例中可能有将近13%与燃气炉有关。此前的一项研究显示，燃气炉还会导致哮喘症状加重。
There are a few simple steps that people can take to reduce the danger, such as opening the windows and buying an air purifier.
人们可以采取一些简单的措施来降低风险，例如开窗通风，购置空气净化器。
‘Dinner Party Scenario’
“晚餐派对场景”
The next day, the team was back testing at another location, this time at an Airbnb apartment in Central Harlem. Their goal: recreate a “big family or dinner party scenario,” said Yannai Kashtan, a Ph.D. candidate in earth system science at Stanford and a member of the research team.
次日，研究团队又去了另一个地点，这一次是中哈莱姆的一个Airbnb公寓。他们的目标是制造一个“大家庭或晚餐派对场景”，研究团队成员、斯坦福大学地球系统科学博士生亚纳伊·卡什坦说。
To limit their own exposure, the team members camped out on a balcony, with sweeping views of Upper Manhattan, holding their breath and running in and out to check on levels.
为了减少自己的接触，团队成员选择待在一个可以俯瞰上曼哈顿的阳台，时不时屏住呼吸冲进去检查检测指标。
In the course of about 40 minutes, levels of nitrogen dioxide topped 200 parts per billion in the living room, 300 parts per billion in the bedroom and 400 parts per billion in the kitchen, or double, triple and quadruple thresholds set by the E.P.A. for one-hour exposures. Benzene concentrations also tripled after the stove was turned on.
在大约40分钟的时间里，客厅的二氧化氮水平最高达到十亿分之200，卧室达到300，厨房达到400，分别是环保局一小时曝露阈值的两倍、三倍和四倍。苯浓度在点燃炉灶后也上升到了三倍量。
This stove came with a hood. “But feel this,” Mr. Kashtan said, his hand in a stream of hot air that was blowing out from the hood’s edge instead of venting outdoors. That meant the hood “doesn’t make much difference” to the bad air, he said.
这里的燃气灶配有油烟机。“但是你感觉一下这里，”卡什坦说，他的手伸向了一团没有被油烟机排到室外，而是从机器边缘涌出的热空气。这说明油烟机对改善空气质量“没起到多大的作用”，他说。
In all, the team conducted daylong testing at eight New York City apartments, including a Brooklyn home where the researchers puzzled over a New York peculiarity: windows sealed with plastic. That was for insulation, said Nina Domingo, who lives in the ground-floor unit with two housemates. But it also meant poor ventilation, which was alarming, given that the kitchen also lacked a hood that vented to the outside.
团队总共在纽约市的八间公寓里进行了为期一天的检测，其中有一间布鲁克林公寓存在纽约特有的怪异特征，令研究人员困惑不已：窗户是用塑料膜封死的。妮娜·多明戈说这是为了保暖，她和两位室友住在这个一楼的单位里。但这也意味着通风会不畅，考虑到厨房没有油烟机，不能把空气排到室外，这是令人担心的情况。
In the immediate kitchen area, nitrogen dioxide concentrations quickly rose to about 2.5 times the E.P.A. threshold.
在厨房所在的区域，二氧化氮浓度很快升到了环保局阈值的2.5倍左右。
The team’s results are preliminary, but they are in line with a body of scientific research that has linked gas stove emissions to harmful pollution affecting both climate change and public health. Previous research has also shown that emissions continue to be released when a stove is turned off because stoves can leak natural gas, which is mostly methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
团队得到的是初步的结果，但是与此前在燃气炉排放和影响气候变化与公共卫生的有害污染之间建立关联的一系列科学研究是相符的。此前的研究还显示，燃气炉熄火后仍然有排放，因为炉子会泄漏天然气，这种气体的主要成分是甲烷，一种强效温室气体。
Change could be on the horizon.
改变可能即将发生。
More than 60 percent of American households already use electricity to cook, and the Biden administration has proposed to expand gas stove efficiency rules, with an estimated $100 million in energy savings for people on top of the climate and health benefits. Several cities in mostly blue states have passed or considered bans on new gas hookups, effectively requiring electric cooking and heating in new construction, though some red states have moved to pre-empt such bans.
超过60%的美国家庭已经在使用电炉做饭，拜登政府已经提议扩大燃气炉能效规定的范围，除了气候和健康方面的收益，预计还可以为人们节省一亿美元的能源费用。多座城市——大多数是蓝州——已经通过或在考虑禁止新的燃气管道铺设，相当于在新建筑中只能用电做饭和取暖，不过一些红州正行动起来，预防这类禁令的出台。