空气污染，让我越来越笨！

有新的研究表明，空气污染使我们变得更笨。研究对象虽然只涉及到了中国的两万人口，但是这些发现与整个世界都是息息相关的，因为全球95%的人都呼吸着不安全的空气。

Both language and arithmetic skills are affected, and high pollution levels led to pretty big drops in test scores for the individuals tested. How big? The average impact on those tested is equivalent to losing one year of education.

研究发现，这些测试对象的语言能力和算术能力都受到了影响，严重的空气污染使得他们的测试分数都大幅下降。 下降的多厉害呢?平均来看，下降的程度，相当于人少读了一年书。

It gets worse, though.

而且，事态仍然在朝更坏的方向发展。

“Polluted air can cause everyone to reduce their level of education by one year, which is huge,” said Xi Chen at Yale School of Public Health in the U.S., a member of the research team. “But we know the effect is worse for the elderly, especially those over 64, and for men, and for those with low education. If we calculate [the loss] for those, it may be a few years of education.”

研究小组成员、美国耶鲁大学公共卫生学院的陈曦表示:"空气污染会导致每个人的受教育时长倒退一年，这已不容小觑。但对于老年人、特别是64岁以上的老年人来说，影响还会更大。此外，对于男性、以及受教育程度低的人来说，更是如此。如果我们细细数来，会发现这一年抵得上上述人群的好几年。”

"The damage on the aging brain by air pollution likely imposes substantial health and economic costs, considering that cognitive functioning is critical for the elderly for both running daily errands and making high-stake decisions," the study authors concluded.

“这一受损，对老年人的影响尤其大，造成的经济损失和健康损失不容忽视;因为对于有些需要日常跑动、甚至需要做一些高风险决策的老年人来说，认知能力尤其重要。”

Previous research has shown that 7 million premature deaths are caused by pollution, but the results found here about intelligence are new. In addition, the study found that the longer people are exposed to dirty air, the larger the damage. Language is the most dramatically affected, and men more than women.

此前虽已有研究表明，有七百万人的过早死亡都是由空气污染引起的，但却从没指出人的智力也会受到空气污染的影响。研究还发现，人们暴露在脏空气中的时间越长，损害就越大。其中，人的语言能力受到的影响是最大的，而且男性比女性受到的影响要大。

So what, exactly, are the mechanisms in play? Derrick Ho, from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said, “It is because high air pollution can potentially be associated with oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and neurodegeneration of humans.”

可是，为何会这样，这背后的原理又是什么?香港理工大学的 Derrick Ho说："这是因为高空气污染可能与人类的氧化应激、神经炎症和神经退行性疾病有关。"