紐時賞析／電商產業快速發展 物流中心成為重大汙染源

美國加州東谷一個亞馬遜中心。隨着線上購物量激增，更多倉庫在全美各地如雨後春筍般涌現。（紐約時報）

Warehouses Cause Spikes In Pollution, Study Finds

研究觀測發現 電商中心附近污染暴增

They are mammoth warehouses large enough to fit football fields inside them, handling many of the more than 20 billion packages Americans send and receive each year.

它們是巨大的倉庫，大到內部可以容納數個美式足球場，美國人每年收發的超過200億個包裹許多都由它們處理。

But for people who live around them, the round-the-clock semitrailer traffic at these giant hubs significantly worsens air pollution, according to a new NASA-funded study that tracked pollutants from space.

但美國太空總署資助從太空追蹤污染物的研究顯示，對於住在這些倉庫附近的人們而言，這些巨大樞紐日以繼夜的半拖車交通，明顯使空氣污染惡化。

The research, led by scientists at George Washington University, is the first of its kind; it used satellite technology to measure a harmful traffic-related pollutant called nitrogen dioxide, zooming in on nearly 150,000 large warehouses across the United States. They found that nitrogen dioxide, which can lead to asthma and other health problems, jumped 20% on average near the warehouses. At the busiest facilities the increase was higher.

這項由喬治華盛頓大學科學家們領導的研究，是這類研究的首例。研究使用衛星科技測量一種與交通有關的有害污染物，叫做二氧化氮，並特別關注全美近15萬間大型倉庫。他們發現，可能導致氣喘和其他健康問題的二氧化氮，在這些倉庫附近平均暴增20%。在最繁忙的一些設施，增加比率更高。

“The average warehouse built since about 2010 looks a lot different than the warehouses that were built prior to that, with lot more loading docks, a lot more parking spaces,” said Gaige Kerr, the lead author of the study and an assistant research professor of environmental and occupational health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health of George Washington University.

這項研究的第一作者、喬治華盛頓大學米爾肯公共衛生學院環境和職業醫學助理研究教授柯爾表示：「自大約2010年起建造的一般倉庫，和在此之前建造的有許多不同，它們有更多卸貨平臺，更多停車位。」

“They’re also increasingly being built in dense clusters next to other warehouses, and attract a lot more traffic, specially heavy-duty vehicles. And that’s very bad when it comes to pollution.”

他說：「它們也日益以稠密羣集的形式，被建造在其他倉庫附近，並吸引更多車輛，特別是重型車輛。以污染而言，這種狀況非常糟糕。」

The research underscores how logistics hubs have fast become a significant contributor to pollution as American heavy industry, a traditional source of pollution, has receded over the past decades and as the power sector has cleaned up its power plants.

這份研究強調，隨着傳統污染源美國重工業過去數十年衰退，電力產業也讓其發電廠更潔淨，如今物流中心已快速成爲重大污染源。

The researchers, who looked at traffic information from the Federal Highway Administration and demographic data from the Census Bureau, also found that communities with large racial and ethnic minority populations were often located near warehouses and inhaled more nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants.

這些研究人員檢視聯邦公路管理局交通資訊和人口普查局人口數據，也發現有較多少數族裔人口的社區經常位於倉庫附近，且吸入更多二氧化氮和其他污染物。

They found, for example, that the proportion of Hispanic and Asian people living close to the largest clusters of warehouses in the study was about 2.5 times the nationwide average.

例如，他們發現，在這項研究中，居住在最大倉庫羣附近的西班牙裔和亞裔人口比率是全國平均約2.5倍。

The study also found that a fifth of all of the warehouses were concentrated in just 10 counties, including Los Angeles County, California; Harris County, Texas; and Miami-Dade County, Florida.

研究也發現，這些倉庫中有五分之一集中在僅10個郡，包括加州洛杉磯郡、德州哈里斯郡和佛州邁阿密—戴德郡。

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