在中國有個吃煙的塔 專治霧霾污染
Air quality is so poor in Beijing that on bad days it’s hard to see buildings across the street. Strategies to live more safely in such an environment abound and no wonder: The journal Nature recently found that air pollution leads to the premature death of three million people every year mainly in Asia.
北京的空氣污染非常嚴重，在天氣不好的時候甚至連對街的建築都看不到。爲應對這類天氣，人們也想出各種方法。而最近登在Nature 上的研究表明，亞洲每年有300萬人因爲空氣污染而提前死亡。
In addition to pervasive face masks kids in the capital’s international schools play sports under protective domes. A British artist based in Beijing created a wacky-looking “breathing bicycle” which filters air as the rider pedals delivering it through a tube that snakes up to a breathing mask.
除了孩子帶着口罩在安裝了防霾圓頂帳篷的國際學校內活動外，一個在北京的英國設計師發明了一種看起來很奇怪的“呼吸自行車”——車手通過蹬踏板以過濾空氣用作呼吸。
One of the latest in this array of pollution problem solvers is a tower that takes in smog and releases clean air. Last week the Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde debuted his “Smog Free Tower” in Beijing’s 798 arts district a former industrial zone. Set among old smokestacks the metal tower reaches 23 feet and looks like what it is: an enormous version of a home air purifier.
最近又新出現了一種塔式空氣淨化器，上週荷蘭的設計師Daan Roosegaarde 在前身是工業區的北京798藝術區，首次展示“霧霾淨化塔”。這個塔是金屬材質，23英尺（7m）高，樹立在老舊煙囪之間，看起來像一個巨大的家用空氣淨化器。
The tower works by sending positive ions into the air which attach to fine particles including PM 2.5 the particulate matter that is especially hazardousto our health. A negatively charged surface (called a counter electrode) then brings the ions and their attached particles back in to the tower where they are collected and stored. The tower subsequently spews out cleaner air through vents. (Roosegaarde uses the collected particles to make “Smog Free Jewelry” in the form of rings and cufflixs.)
這個塔的工作原理是向空氣中釋放正離子，依附在微粒上，包括對健康影響很大的PM2.5微粒。塔的內表面帶負電荷（稱爲反電子），把正離子和其所依附的微粒吸回塔裏，進行收集和儲存。塔隨後通過通風口噴出清潔的空氣（Roosegaarde用搜集的微粒製作煙霧首飾，包括戒指和cufflixs）。
Roosegaarde told Motherboard that the air surrounding the tower has up to 70 percent fewer pollution particles after it’s been cleaned. And since installing the tower in Beijing he reported to CNN that it collects in one day what it brought in over the course of two weeks of testing in the Netherlands.
Roosegaarde告訴Motherboard，經過清潔後，在塔周圍的空氣已經減少了百分之70的污染顆粒。他向美國有線電視新聞網報告，安裝在北京的清潔塔在一天內收集的東西，和在荷蘭兩個星期蒐集的一樣多。
The Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection is supporting Roosegaarde’s venture and has asked him to take the tower on a tour of four other cities in the coming year. Roosegaarde hopes that this is only the beginning. He aims to install 800 of his towers in public parks across China not only to create pockets of cleaner air but to bring more awareness to what is admittedly a huge problem that a giant air purifier—or even 800 of them—can’t begin to solve.
中國環保部支持Roosegaarde 的創舉，並要求他來年攜帶淨化塔到另外四個城市巡遊。Roosegaarde 希望這纔是開始。他的目標是在中國各地公園安裝800座淨化塔，不僅是爲了產生更乾淨的空氣，而是要引起對空氣污染的更多警醒，這個公認的巨大問題不是靠巨大的空氣淨化器就能解決的——哪怕800個都不行。
“We need a bottom-up effort both with citizens and governments actively working for change” Roosegaarde told CNN. “My hope is that one day in 10 or 15 years we’ll look back at [the tower] and find it obsolete.”
“我們需要市民和政府上下雙方的積極行動以取得改變”Roosegaarde告訴CNN.“我希望10年或15年後的一天，我們再回看（淨化塔）時，發現它過時了”。
