研究发现，尽管有大量的警示告诫人们吸烟有害健康，目前全球十分之一的死亡是由吸烟导致。作为解决可预防疾病健康诱因措施的一部分，目前，英国政府承诺到2030年在英格兰全面停止吸烟。但为什么有些人还在吸烟呢？讨论这背后的原因，以及帮助人们戒烟的举措。
Vocabulary: smoking
词汇：吸烟
If you walked into a cafe or pub in the UK a few years ago, chances were you’d enter a room filled with cigarette smoke. The aroma of burning tobacco lingered on your clothes for the rest of day and your health took a battering from passive smoking. It’s no wonder that in many countries smoking in public places has now been banned, and those who choose to do it have to inhale on the pavements outside.
几年前，如果你走进英国的一家咖啡馆或酒吧，很有可能你会进入一个充满香烟烟雾的房间。燃烧烟草的味道会在你衣服上留一整天，而被动吸烟也会严重损害你的健康。难怪现在在许多国家，公共场所吸烟已被禁止，那些选择吸烟的人只能站在人行道上吸烟。
Laws restricting where people can light up and repeated health warnings have seen many people quit the habit. But despite a decline in smoking rates worldwide, a report published in the medical journal The Lancet in 2017 found that smoking causes one in ten deaths worldwide, half of them in just four countries - China, India, the US and Russia. When population growth is taken into account, there is actually an increase in the overall number of smokers. So why - despite the warning signs - are these people still doing it?
限制人们在哪里可以点烟的法律，加上反复的健康警告，已经让很多人戒掉了这个习惯。但尽管全球吸烟率在下降，《柳叶刀》（The Lancet）医学期刊于2017年发布的一份报告仍指出：吸烟导致了全球每十例死亡中的一例，其中一半仅发生在四个国家——中国、印度、美国和俄罗斯。而考虑到人口增长因素，全球吸烟者的总人数实际上是在上升。那么，尽管有如此多的警示信号，为什么这些人仍然在吸烟？
Much of it seems to be connected to people’s cultural, economic and social background. In the UK, for example, the Office for National Statistics found that people living on a low income are disproportionately likely to smoke. And one in four manual workers smokes, compared with one in ten of those in professional or managerial jobs. Dr Leonie Brose from King's College London, writing about this for the BBC, says there are “startling” regional variations with many more pregnant women smoking in deprived areas. And people with mental health problems are “50% more likely to smoke than the rest of the population”. She suggests these groups can have higher levels of dependence, making it harder to give up and are also more likely to be around other smokers, making it seem like normal behaviour.
很大一部分原因似乎与人们的文化、经济和社会背景有关。比如在英国，国家统计局发现，低收入人群吸烟的可能性更高。每四个体力劳动者中就有一个吸烟者，而从事专业或管理工作的群体中，只有十分之一吸烟。伦敦国王学院的莱奥妮·布罗斯博士（Dr Leonie Brose）在为BBC撰写的文章中指出，不同地区之间存在“惊人的”差异，经济贫困地区的孕妇吸烟比例要高得多。而患有精神健康问题的人群，“吸烟的可能性比普通人高出50%”。她认为，这些群体对尼古丁的依赖性更强，因此更难戒烟；同时他们也更可能身处其他吸烟者之间，从而觉得这是一种“正常行为”。
Increasing the price of cigarettes and making packaging plainer are two ways to discourage smoking; and lower-risk nicotine patches and e-cigarettes are available as an alternative, though they can be just as addictive. It’s obvious something needs to be done and recently the UK government pledged to end smoking in England by 2030 as part of a range of measures to tackle the causes of preventable ill health. But as Dr Leonie Brose writes, “with more than 200 deaths in England per day [caused by smoking-related diseases,] that’s the equivalent to a plane crashing every day.” Imagine what the number must be globally.
提高香烟价格、简化包装设计是劝阻吸烟的两种方式；此外，还有尼古丁贴片和电子烟等较低风险的替代品，尽管它们同样可能令人上瘾。显然，必须采取措施加以应对。近期，英国政府承诺，到2030年要终结英格兰的吸烟现象，这是解决可预防性健康问题的一揽子措施之一。但正如布罗斯博士所写的那样：“英国每天有超过200人死于吸烟相关疾病，这相当于每天坠毁一架飞机。” 想象一下，全球范围内会是一个怎样的数字。
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