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What are ‘sacrifice zones’ and why do some Americans live in them?
什么是“死亡地带”，为什么有些美国人住在那里？
How do you calculate the price of a human life? What about 256,000 human lives? Around a quarter of a million Americans are living in parts of the United States where rates of cancer caused by air pollution exceed the US government’s own limit of “acceptable risk.” Environmental experts have a chilling name for these sites: Sacrifice zones. Residents of these communities die of cancer and other illnesses more often, and earlier, than people sometimes just a couple miles away. Many of them may not know this.
你会如何计算一条人命值多少钱呢？那25.6万条人命呢？在美国，由空气污染引起的癌症发病率超过政府“可接受”范围的地区居住着大约25万居民。环境专家给这些地区起名为死亡地带，令人不寒而栗。这些地区死于癌症和其他疾病的居民较仅几英里以外的更多，患病更早。他们中很多人可能还不知情。
The Environmental Protection Agency does know – and allows it to happen. In other words, a government agency that is supposed to protect Americans has effectively condemned thousands of them to death. We know about this moral scandal in part thanks to research and reporting by ProPublica. Last week, the investigative news outlet published a detailed map of US sacrifice zones. Many are in the Texas and Louisiana petrochemical corridor sometimes called Cancer Alley. But others are in communities as far-flung as Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee.
事实上，美国环境保护署知晓此事，并任其发生。也就是说，一个本应保护民众的政府机构实际已经判处成千上万的美国人于死刑。这一道德丑闻遭曝光，一定程度上归功于ProPublica的研究和报道。上周，这家新闻调查机构发布了美国死亡地带的地图详情。其中有许多位于德克萨斯州和路易斯安那州的石化地带，这一地带也被称为癌症带。但其他的则分布在像宾夕法尼亚州、新墨西哥州、伊利诺伊州、肯塔基州和田纳西州一样远的地区。
Millions of Americans no doubt go about their daily lives under the belief that, if nothing else, their government should protect them – and is protecting them – from cancer-causing industrial pollutants. Unfortunately, they’re in for a disturbing wake-up call.
通常来说，很多美国人毫无疑问地认为，不说别的，他们政府应该且正在保护他们不受致癌工业污染物的伤害。不幸的是，对于令人不安的警告他们无法逃避。
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