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2021年7月25日
这是我们的第349篇双语文章
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Is the Air in Your Office Fit to Breathe?
您办公室的空气适合呼吸吗？
Covid-19 has taught the world quite a few things. Not least, the value of fresh air. Indoors — in restaurants, church halls, nursing homes, meatpacking plants — the contagion spread easily, as virus particles exhaled by the infected hung in the air to be inhaled by new victims. Outside, flows of air dispersed those same aerosols enough to bring the spread of the disease almost to a stop. Schools, offices and other indoor spaces need better ventilation in order to minimize the harm from new coronaviruses, cold and flu viruses, and every other sort of airborne pathogen.
新冠疫情教会了世界很多东西，特别是新鲜空气的价值。在室内—餐馆、教堂大厅、疗养院、肉类加工厂—传染病很容易传播，因为感染者呼出的病毒颗粒悬浮在空气中，被新的受害者吸入。在室外，气流将这些相同的气溶胶分散开，足以使疾病的传播几乎停止。学校、办公室和其他室内空间也需要更好的通风，以尽量减少新冠病毒、感冒和流感病毒以及其他各种空气传播病原体带来的危害。
This calls for rethinking the way indoor air is controlled. New guidance on safer ventilation in schools is urgent, and currently under discussion. State and local building codes should also be revised. Economizing on buildings’ use of energy is vital in the fight against climate change — but the need for effective ventilation, which often requires more energy, can no longer be ignored.
这就需要我们重新思考对室内空气的控制方式。为学校制定安全通风的新指南迫在眉睫，目前正在讨论中。州一级和地方的建筑规范也应进行修订。节约建筑物的能源使用对应对气候变化至关重要—有效通风的需求虽然往往需要更多能源，但也不能再忽视。
Most big systems for heating, ventilation and air conditioning circulate air quite slowly, even when operating at their best. Fresh or filtered air is fanned in from the ceiling, mixes with air in the room, and eventually moves out through vents also in the ceiling. Typically, most of the air in a room changes about twice an hour, unevenly. That’s fine for maintaining comfortable temperature and humidity without wasting energy, but not for clearing exhaled virus particles from a room full of people. Such particles are heavier than gases, don’t mix well and can remain suspended for hours.
大多数用于供暖、通风和空调的大型系统循环空气的工作速度都很慢空气英文，即使在最佳状态下也是如此。新鲜空气或过滤后的空气从天花板扇入，与房间内的空气混合，最终通过天花板上的通风口排出。通常，房间内的大部分空气每小时会更换两次左右，但并非匀速。在不浪费能源的情况下，这对于保持舒适的温度和湿度完全没问题，但对于清除挤满了人的房间中呼出的病毒颗粒是没有用的，因为这些颗粒比气体重互联网项目，不能很好地与气体混合，而且可以悬浮数小时。
What’s needed is “displacement ventilation,” which sends cool air through vents low in the room and draws out warmer air through the ceiling. Some hospitals and other buildings (especially in Scandinavia) have these systems. They should be preferred in new construction — but what about existing offices, schools and other buildings that aren’t already equipped?
因此，我们需要的是“置换通风”，通过房间低处的通风口发送冷空气，并通过天花板抽出暖空气。一些医院和其他建筑物（特别是在斯堪的纳维亚半岛国家）也有这种系统。在新建筑中这种系统应当作为首选—但是现有的办公室、学校和其他尚未配备这种系统的建筑物怎么办呢？
During the pandemic, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers recommended that buildings filter air more thoroughly (with portable high-efficiency systems, if necessary) and keep ventilation systems running for hours before and after people are present. This seems sensible, though more research is needed on using filtration and ultraviolet irradiation to minimize the risk of infection.
在疫情期间，美国采暖、制冷和空调工程师协会建议，建筑物应更彻底地过滤空气（如有必要，可使用便携式的高效系统），并在有人进入之前和之后保持通风系统运行数小时。这似乎非常是明智之举，当然如何使用过滤和紫外线照射来最大程度地降低感染风险也需要进行更多的调查研究。
How well plug-in ionizers and other air “purifiers” clear virus particles is disputed. They certainly can’t be relied on to do the job themselves. Ionizers also release ozone, which can cause trouble for people with asthma. Too many schools have spent Covid relief funds on such devices while neglecting other measures (such as better filtration, or opening the windows). Most classrooms are still poorly ventilated. Stagnant air, thick with exhaled carbon dioxide, helps spread disease and hinders student performance.
插入式离子发生器和其他空气“净化器”清除病毒颗粒的效果仍然存在争议，我们当然不能完全依赖这些设备来完成清除病毒的工作。离子发生器也会释放臭氧，会给哮喘患者带来问题。太多的学校都把新冠救济资金花在了此类设备上，而忽略了其他措施（例如更好的过滤或打开窗户）。大多数教室仍然通风不良。停滞不动空气中含有大量呼出的二氧化碳，助长疾病传播并阻碍学生的学习表现。
It takes power to move and filter air adequately, but Covid has shown that regulators need to face this trade-off. As well as changing building codes, states should require building operators to tell occupants how well their air is being ventilated, so they can judge what’s safe and adjust their behavior when infectious diseases are spreading. The threat of contagion rises when people talk, laugh, sing, sneeze or cough — rendering it virtually impossible to make any room perfectly safe. Masks and social distancing help. Again, though, there’s a lot to learn about using placement and room-capacity limits to mitigate the risk.
使空气充分流动和过滤需要电力，但新冠疫情已经表明，监管机构需要面对这种权衡作出决策。除了修改建筑规范外，各州还应该要求建筑运营商告知居住者其空气通风情况，以便在传染病传播时，人们可以判断如何保持安全，并调整其行为。当人们说话、大笑、唱歌、打喷嚏或咳嗽时，感染病毒的威胁就会增加—因为几乎不可能让任何房间都完全安全。戴口罩和保持社交距离确实有用。尽管如此，同样的空气英文，如何利用房间人数和房间容量限制来降低风险，还有很多东西需要我们学习。
Two years ago, not many policy makers had “quality of building ventilation” on their list of priorities. Score it as one more thing that, thanks to the pandemic, needs to change.
两年前，没有多少决策者将“建筑物通风质量”列入优先考虑的事项清单。但是由于疫情，这成了需要进行改变的又一件事。
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