保护视力从户外活动开始-儿童近视已经在全球蔓延

学生近视问题呈现低龄化，学生近视问题已经成了一种流行病。

如何缓解学生近视问题，户外运动是已经验证的有效手段。

所以，对于一天大部分时间都在学校学习的学生来说，防止近视，学校要让学生尽可能多得走出课堂，去户外活动。

本周，我们来精读2022年6月第三期《经济学人》中来自Leaders板块的文章

What to do about myopia如何解决近视问题Short-sightedness has become an epidemic近视已经演变成一种流行病

To fight it, schools should send their students outside

学校应该把学生赶出教堂

本文有很多值得学习的句型和翻译。

我们先来看下结构。

1. Few things come with no downsides at all. Rich countries have almost completely banished infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, cholera and malaria. Instead, their health ministries spend much of their time worrying about illnesses caused by wealth. Cheap, calorie-dense food has abolished starvation in the rich world, but it also encourages diabetes. Sedentary, white-collar jobs are less arduous (and less lethal) than manual work. They also promote obesity and heart disease.

凡事都有不好的一面。富裕国家几乎完全消灭了传染性疾病如肺结核、霍乱和疟疾。然而，富国健康部门大部分时间却在担忧由富裕引起的疾病。

便宜、高热量的食物让饥饿在富国消失殆尽，但也带来了糖尿病。比起体力工作，久坐不动的白领工作不累也更安全。但它却造成了肥胖症和心脏病。

注意：Few things come with no downsides at all这句话和 every cloud has a silver lining 可以算作一对反义词：凡事都有不好的一面，凡事都有好的一面。

2. Even education is not always an unalloyed good. Over the past few decades, East Asia has seen a stunning rise in the rate of short-sightedness. And a growing pile of evidence suggests that the main underlying reason for this is education—specifically, the fact that children spend large parts of the day in comparatively dimly lit classrooms.

即便是教育领域也不是岁月静好。在过去几十年，东亚国家的近视率上升速度惊人。越来越多的证据表明造成这一现状的根本原因在于学生每天大部分时间是在昏暗的教室中度过的。

3. Before the long economic booms that began in the 1960s, myopia was uncommon in East Asia. These days, among the young, it is almost ubiquitous. In Hong Kong, Singapore and Taipei more than 80% of school-leavers are short-sighted. In Seoul over nine in ten young men are. China, which began its economic rise later, is catching up. Data from as far afield as Guangzhou in the south and Inner Mongolia in the north show myopia rates among young people of about 80%.

在20世纪60年代长期经济繁荣之前，近视在东亚国家中很少见。而如今，近视人群在年轻人中几乎随处可见。在香港、新加坡和台北80%的学校毕业生近视。在首尔，9/10的年轻人近视。经济起步较晚的中国，近视率也不断攀升。数据表明从南方的广州到北方的内蒙古，年轻人的近视率达到了80%左右。

4. If East Asia is the centre of the epidemic, the West is not immune. Good data are harder to come by. But studies suggest rates of between 20% and 40% in Europe, an order of magnitude higher than the natural state of affairs. One study in California found a rate of 59% among 17- to 19-year-olds.

如果说东亚是近视流行病的重灾区，西方也不能独善其身。确切数据很难得到，但研究表明欧洲的近视率在20%到40%之间。这一数字比自然发生率还要高。加利福尼亚州的一项调查显示59%的近视患者年龄在17到19岁。

5. There are, admittedly, worse things to suffer from. But short-sightedness is not always benign. Glasses and contact lenses are an expensive, lifelong hassle. In parts of rural China, where some families cannot afford either, children struggle in the very schools that are causing the problem. And severe myopia predisposes those enduring it to other eye diseases in middle age, some of which can cause untreatable loss of vision. Governments in Asia are increasingly worried about the public-health implications of entire generations growing up short-sighted. Those in other parts of the world should start worrying, too.

不可否认，近视患者要经历更糟的事情。近视对任何人都不会仁慈。眼镜和隐形眼镜很贵，但不能不戴，而且还要终生佩戴。

在中国农村地区，家里贫穷没钱购买眼镜的学生还要在造成近视的根源地继续挣扎学习。严重的近视会让患者在中年患上其他眼部疾病，其中一些疾病会造成不可逆转的失明。

亚洲各国政府对近视不断增加的一代所展现出的公共卫生问题越来越担忧。世界其他国家也该警惕起来。

6. The evidence suggests that regular exposure to bright daylight is vital in properly controlling the growth of children’s eyes. Too little light leads to elongated, short-sighted eyes. Researchers think that this explains why rates are so high in Asia, where a strong cultural emphasis on the value of education leads to long school days and, often, private tutoring in the afternoon and evening. That leaves little time for sunshine. Western children, whose parents are increasingly worried by a hyper-competitive jobs market that threatens much less secure employment than they enjoyed, are beginning to go the same way.

有证据表明定期暴露在白日光下能够适当控制孩子眼睛的生长。接触光线过少会造成长期近视。

研究人员认为这就解释了为什么亚洲人口的近视率高，因为亚洲深厚的文化传统重视教育，所以学生们花在学校的时候很长，而且还要参加下午和晚上的辅导班，从而剥夺了接触阳光的时间。

而对于西方孩子来说，高度竞争的劳动力市场威胁着西方家长对工作的安全感，所以西方家长的忧虑在增加，也开始走上东亚国家的老路。

7. Special eyedrops, as well as clever glasses and contact lenses, may be able to slow the progression of myopia once it has started. But prevention is better than mitigation, and the science suggests a cheap, straightforward measure. A series of encouraging trials, many conducted in Taiwan, show that giving schoolchildren—and especially those in primary education—more time outside can cut the number who go on to develop myopia. An island-wide policy of doing just that seems to have begun reversing the decades-long rise in myopia rates. Similar attempts in Singapore relied on parents, who proved more reluctant to change their behaviour, perhaps worried that other parents might not follow suit, leaving their children at a disadvantage in the classroom.

一旦近视形成，特殊眼药水、合适的眼镜以及隐形眼镜能够帮助缓解近视的过程。但是未雨绸缪最好。科学家们提供了一种经济实惠且简单直接的方式。

一系列令人激动的试验，包括很多在台湾进行的试验表明增加学生，尤其是小学阶段的学生的户外时间能够让那些即将发展成近视的人避免近视。这一全岛执行的政策似乎已经扭转了十多年近视率上升的趋势。

新加坡也进行了类似的尝试，他们依靠父母来行动。那些不愿改变自己行为的父母，或许担心其他父母会跟着政策走，这样自己的孩子在教室就处于劣势之中。

8. Governments are well placed to solve such collective-action problems, while reassuring anxious parents that a bit less classroom time is unlikely to be catastrophic. After all, countries such as Finland and Sweden do well in global education rankings with a less intense approach to education. Giving more outdoor time to young children would still leave room for them to cram for exams in their teenage years. And longer breaks in the playground may also make a dent in other rich-world problems such as childhood obesity. Far-sighted governments should send the kids outdoors. ■

政府已经准备好解决这个需要集体力量来实现的问题，同时也向焦虑的父母保证，少点课堂时间没什么大事，不会对学习带来影响。毕竟，那些全球教育排名靠前的国家如芬兰和瑞典的教育手段没那么激进。

让孩子拥有更多的户外时间仍然留给他们在少年时期准备考试的时间。运动场上多活动也能解决其他富裕国家的问题如儿童肥胖症。

有远见的政府应该让孩子走出教室，去户外玩耍。