研究表明：世界大部分水体已被微量塑料物质污染 [美国媒体]

Muara Angke, Indonesia: Workers steam and shuck mussels pulled from the waters around Jakarta, Indonesia. Scientists have studied how micro plastics absorb toxins they are in proximity too and how they are then taken up into the food chain in mussels and other shellfish.

印度尼西亚红溪河口：工人们把印度尼西亚首都雅加达附近水域中的蚌类打捞上来，蒸熟去壳。科学家们研究了塑料微粒是如何吸收它们附近的毒素，以及它们是怎样把毒素带入蚌类和其他贝类食物链中的。

Microscopic plastic fibers are pouring out of household faucets from New York to Delhi, according to original research by?Orb Media, a nonprofit digital newsroom in Washington, DC.

位于华盛顿的非盈利数字新闻媒体Orb Media的原始调查表明，在从纽约到德里的家庭中，水龙头里均排放出了微量的塑料纤维。

Working with researchers at the State University of New York and the University of Minnesota, Orb tested 159 drinking water samples from cities and towns on five continents.

纽约州立大学和明尼苏达大学的研究者们和Orb的工作人员一起测试了159份取自五大洲城市和城镇的饮用水样本。

Eighty-three percent of those samples, including tap water from the US Capitol complex, Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington, DC, and the Trump Grill in New York, contained microscopic plastic fibers.

而其中83%的样本——包括取自美国国会大厦、总部位于华盛顿的环境保护总署、纽约的特朗普烧烤屋的自来水，均含有微量的塑料纤维。

If synthetic fibers are in tap water, they’re also likely in foods prepared with water, such as bread, pasta, soup?and baby formula, researchers say.

研究者称，如果自来水里含有合成纤维，那么合成纤维也可能出现在由自来水制作出的食物中，比如面包，意面，汤和婴幼儿配方奶粉。

“This should knock us into our senses,”?Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said in a written statement. “We knew that this plastic is coming back to us through our food chain. Now we see it is coming back to us through our drinking water. Do we have a way out?” Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank, plans to launch an initiative against plastic waste later this year.

2006年的诺贝尔和平奖得主穆罕默德·尤努斯在一份书面声明中称“这应该引起我们的注意，我们知道这些塑料正通过食物链回到我们身边，现在我们又看到它们通过饮用水回到我们嘴里，我们还有出路吗？”乡村银行的创始人尤努斯，计划在今年晚些时候发起一项反对塑料废物的倡议。

A growing body of research has established the presence of microscopic plastic pollution in the world’s oceans, freshwater, soil?and air.

越来越多的研究得以立项，开始研究世界海洋、淡水、土地和空气中存在的微量塑料污染。

This study is the first, however, to show plastic contamination in tap water from sources around the world, according to Orb.?

不过，Orb的调查显示，这项研究则是首次反映了全球各地自来水中的塑料污染物的污染程度。

Scientists say they don’t know how plastic fibers reach household taps — or, what the health implications might be. Some suspect they originate in synthetic clothing like sportswear, or in textiles like carpets and upholstery.

科学家们称他们并不知道这些塑料纤维是怎么来到家用水龙头里的——以及它们会对健康产生什么样的影响。一些人猜测它们来自合成面料制成的衣服，比如运动服里，或者来自于地毯和室内装饰的一些纺织物。

Experts are concerned these fibers may transfer toxins, acting as a kind of shuttle for dangerous chemicals from the freshwater environment into the human body.

专家们同样担心这些纤维会变成毒素，充当从淡水环境携带危险化学物质到人体中的穿梭机。

In animal studies, “it became clear very early on that the plastic would release those chemicals and that actually, the conditions in the gut would facilitate really quite rapid release,” said Richard Thompson, the associate dean for research at?Plymouth University.

普利茅斯大学的副院长理查德·汤普森说：“动物实验很早就清楚地表明，塑料会释放化学物质，实际上，肠道内的环境促使了化学物质得到更快的释放”。

“We have enough data from looking at wildlife and the impacts that it's having on wildlife” to be concerned, said professor?Sherri Mason, a microplastics research pioneer who supervised Orb’s study. “If it's impacting them, then how do we think that it's not going to somehow impact us?”

塑料微粒研究先驱Sherri Mason教授也指导了Orb的这项研究：“我们从观察野生动物和观察塑料对野生动物的影响上得到了足够的数据，如果塑料正在影响它们，我们怎么知道塑料就不会以某种方式影响我们呢？”

The contamination defies geography and income: The number of fibers found in a tap water sample from a washroom sink at the Trump Grill was equal to that found in samples from Quito, Ecuador. 

污染物与地理环境以及收入水平并无关系：取自特朗普烧烤屋卫生间洗脸盆的自来水样本中的纤维数量与取自厄瓜多尔基多的样本中发现的是一样的。

The US doesn’t have a safety standard for plastic in drinking water, an EPA spokeswoman said, nor are they on the agency’s Contaminant Candidate List of unregulated substances that are known to appear in tap water.

一名环境保护总署的发言人表示，美国没有设定饮用水中塑料的安全标准，它们也未被列入已知出现在自来水中的非管制物质污染物候选名单。

The European Union requires member states to ensure drinking water is free of contaminants.

欧盟则要求其成员国确保饮用水不含污染物。

Of 33 tap water samples from across the United States, 94 percent tested positive for the presence of plastic fibers, the same average for samples collected from Beirut, Lebanon.

在来自美国各地的33份自来水样本中，有94%的样本被检测出确定含有塑料纤维，这一数字也是收集自黎巴嫩贝鲁特的样本的平均数值。

Other sampled locations include the following, with their percentages for plastic fibers: Delhi, India (82 percent); Kampala, Uganda (81 percent); Jakarta, Indonesia (76 percent); Quito, Ecuador (75 percent); and Europe (72 percent).

其他样本收集地及其含有塑料纤维样本的百分比分别是：印度德里（82%）；乌干达坎帕拉（81%）；印度尼西亚雅加达（76%）；厄瓜多尔基多（75%）；欧洲（72%）。

Mason, who chairs the department of geology and environmental science at the State University of New York at Fredonia, designed the study. Researcher Mary Kosuth performed the tests at the University of Minnesota. Kosuth will submit the study’s results for publication in a peer-reviewed journal later this year.

担任位于弗雷多尼亚的纽约州立大学地质与环境科学系主席的梅森设计了这项研究。研究员Mary Kosuth在明尼苏达大学进行了这些测试。Kosuth将会在该年晚些时候出版的一份同行评议期刊上发表这项研究的结果。

“Since this is the first global tap water survey of plastic pollution to have been completed, the results of this study serve as an initial glimpse at the consequences of human plastic use [and] disposal rather than a comprehensive assessment of global plastic contamination,” Kosuth wrote. “These results call for further testing within and between regions.”

Kosuth写道：“因为这是首份已经完成的关于全球自来水中塑料污染的调查，这项研究结果是对人类塑料使用的后果进行最初阶段的检视，而非是对全球塑料污染物的全面评估。这些结果要求我们在区域内和区域间进行进一步的检测”。



[–]Carri3 368 points 1 day ago 
Plastic is the real bane of our time and for all life as we know it on earth. Sure, carbon is bad if used in a way that harms in some manner... but plastic is the real issue nobody in global politics seems to be making waves about.

塑料是我们这个时代的真正祸根，终我们的一生，它们都会留存于土壤中。当然，如果以有害的方式使用，碳也是不好的……但塑料这个真实存在的问题在全球政治舞台上似乎却没有人提及。

[–]Anonygram 57 points 16 hours ago 
Gradeschoolers in the usa were taught in the 90's that styrofoam was bad because it takes years to break down and enter the food chains. All that horrible stuff you were taught about styrofoam is also true of plastic.

在美国，90年代学龄期的孩子也曾被教育苯乙烯泡棉是有害的，因为它需要花很多年才能降解，并进入食物链中。你被教育过的所有那些关于苯乙烯泡棉的可怕事情对于塑料而言也一样。

[–]Neglectful_Stranger 198 points 21 hours ago 
Because plastic is one of the most useful materials that we've ever discovered.

因为塑料是我们曾经发现过的最为有用的物质之一。

[–]BorisJenkins 7 points 9 hours ago 
I bet in the future, future scientists will use 'the plastic layer' to determine life/death chronology in the years 1945-2100AD.

我敢打赌，未来的科学家将会使用“塑料层”来定义公元1945年至2100年期间的生命与死亡年代。

[–]MolecularAnthony 3 points 11 hours ago 
Plastic is one of the greatest inventions ever. It has its shadow, but it makes a technologically advanced society function.

塑料是有史以来最伟大的发明之一。当然它有自己的缺陷，但它却让现在这个技术上十分发达的社会得以运转。

[–]OctopusPilates 5 points 12 hours ago 
Also stop buying useless cheap shit.

不要再买那些无用的便宜货色了。

[–]UrbanPikerLDN 30 points 23 hours ago 
This is very depressing.

这个消息让人非常沮丧。

[–]bigtuna32j 5 points 17 hours ago 
Ah, the new plague has arrived

啊，新的瘟疫已经出现了。

[–]dr_j_ 3 points 17 hours ago 
Says the majority of world water which implies a minority set of countries for which tap water isn't contaminated. We just need to find out how those countries deal with this issue, no?

新闻说世界上的大部分水体被污染了，这也就意味着还有少数国家的自来水没有被污染。我们只要找出这些国家是如何处理这个问题的，不是吗？

[–]33papers[S] 2 points 16 hours ago 
Unfortunately it seems the micro plastics probably are in the water cycle. At the moment it seems likely all countries have at least 70% contamination.

不幸的是，看起来这些微量的塑料物质可能已经进入了水循环。此刻看起来所有的国家至少都有70%的水体被污染了。