在中国有个吃烟的塔 专治雾霾污染

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.

北京的空气污染非常严重，在天气不好的时候甚至连对街的建筑都看不到。为应对这类天气，人们也想出各种方法。而最近登在Nature 上的研究表明，亚洲每年有300万人因为空气污染而提前死亡。

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.

除了孩子带着口罩在安装了防霾圆顶帐篷的国际学校内活动外，一个在北京的英国设计师发明了一种看起来很奇怪的“呼吸自行车”——车手通过蹬踏板以过滤空气用作呼吸。

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.

最近又新出现了一种塔式空气净化器，上周荷兰的设计师Daan Roosegaarde 在前身是工业区的北京798艺术区，首次展示“雾霾净化塔”。这个塔是金属材质，23英尺（7m）高，树立在老旧烟囱之间，看起来像一个巨大的家用空气净化器。

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.)

这个塔的工作原理是向空气中释放正离子，依附在微粒上，包括对健康影响很大的PM2.5微粒。塔的内表面带负电荷（称为反电子），把正离子和其所依附的微粒吸回塔里，进行收集和储存。塔随后通过通风口喷出清洁的空气（Roosegaarde用搜集的微粒制作烟雾首饰，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告诉Motherboard，经过清洁后，在塔周围的空气已经减少了百分之70的污染颗粒。他向美国有线电视新闻网报告，安装在北京的清洁塔在一天内收集的东西，和在荷兰两个星期搜集的一样多。

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.

中国环保部支持Roosegaarde 的创举，并要求他来年携带净化塔到另外四个城市巡游。Roosegaarde 希望这才是开始。他的目标是在中国各地公园安装800座净化塔，不仅是为了产生更干净的空气，而是要引起对空气污染的更多警醒，这个公认的巨大问题不是靠巨大的空气净化器就能解决的——哪怕800个都不行。

“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.”

“我们需要市民和政府上下双方的积极行动以取得改变”Roosegaarde告诉CNN.“我希望10年或15年后的一天，我们再回看（净化塔）时，发现它过时了”。