TED演讲之神童 获奖青少年,科技在行动(6)
Hi everyone. I’m Naomi Shah, and today I’ll be talking to you about my research involving indoor air quality and asthmatic patients.
大家好，我是劳伦·霍奇，今天我要跟你们讲讲我关于室内空气质量和哮喘病人的研究。
1.6 million deaths worldwide. One death every 20 seconds. People spend over 90 percent of their lives indoors.
在世界范围内有160万，每20秒就有一例死亡。人们90%的生活都在室内。
And the economic burden of asthma exceeds that of HIV and tuberculosis combined.
哮喘带来的经济负担超过了HIV和肺结核的总合。
Now these statistics had a huge impact on me,
这些统计数据对我产生了重大的影响，
but what really sparked my interest in my research was watching both my dad and my brother suffer from chronic allergies year-round.
但是，真正点燃我研究兴趣的是，看到我爸爸和弟弟受到全年慢性过敏的困扰。
It confused me; why did these allergy symptoms persist well past the pollen season?
这让我很困惑；为什么这些过敏症状在花粉季节这么顽固？
With this question in mind, I started researching, and I soon found that indoor air pollutants were the culprit.
带着这个问题，我开始了研究，我很快发现室内空气污染物是罪魁祸首。
As soon as I realized this, I investigated the underlying relationship between four prevalent air pollutants
我一发现这一点，就调查了四种广布的空气污染物的关系。
and their affect on the lung health of asthmatic patients.
和他们对哮喘病人肺部健康的影响。
At first, I just wanted to figure out which of these four pollutants have the largest negative health impact on the lung health of asthmatic patients.
起初，我只是想弄清楚这四种污染物中哪一种对于哮喘病人的肺部健康来说是最有害的。
But soon after, I developed a novel mathematical model that essentially quantifies the effect of these environmental pollutants on the lung health of asthmatic patients.
但是很快，我建立了一个新型的数学模型，从本质上量化了这些环境污染物对哮喘病人肺部健康的影响。
And it surprises me that no model currently exists that quantifies the effect of environmental factors on human lung health,
让我惊奇的是，目前还没有模型能量化环境因素对人类肺部健康的影响，
because that relationship seems so important.
因为这之间的关系看起来很重要。
So with that in mind, I started researching more, I started investigating more, and I became very passionate.
带着这种想法，我开始了更多的研究，更多的调查，变得激情澎湃。
Because I realized that if we could find a way to target remediation, we could also find a way to treat asthmatic patients more effectively.
因为，我发现如果我们能找到一个整治环境的方法，我们也能找到一种方法来更有效的治疗哮喘病人。
For example, volatile organic compounds are chemical pollutants that are found in our schools, homes and workplaces.
比如，挥发性有机物是化学性污染物在我们的学校，家里以及办公室都能发现。
They’re everywhere. These chemical pollutants are currently not a criteria air pollutant, as defined by the U.S. Clean Air Act.
它们无处不在，这些化学污染物据美国清洁空气法案定义，目前还不在空气污染物的标准中。
Which is surprising to me, because these chemical pollutants, through my research,
这让我感到惊奇，因为这些化学污染物，根据我的研究，
I show that they had a very large negative impact on the lung health of asthmatic patients and thus should be regulated.
我发现他们对哮喘病人的健康有极其负面的影响因此应该被列入规范中。