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So, I talked to this scientist, Sherri Mason, who studies microplastics in the water, and she told me that one of the complexities here is just understanding the sheer diversity of microplastics and trying to look at how all of that diversity affects the human body.
因此，我与这位研究水中微塑料的科学家 谢丽·梅森进行了交谈，她告诉我，这部分的复杂性之一仅仅是了解微塑料的多样性，并试图研究所有这些多样性是如何影响人体。
We're talking about thousands of different plastics, lots of different shapes of those, and the different shapes, depending upon what plastic, is going to have a different impact.
我们正在谈论数以千计的不同塑料会产生不同的影响。这些塑料有很多不同的形状，而微塑料的形状取决于原塑料的种类。
And then, on top of that, then you have all the different chemicals, right?
然后，最重要的是，你有所有不同的化学物质，对吧？
So, is it a polycarbonate fiber or a polystyrene ball? All of that can have different impacts.
那么，它是聚碳酸酯纤维还是聚苯乙烯球呢？所有这些都可能产生不同的影响。
And are you talking about a liver cell or a kidney cell or a brain cell or a skin cell?
并且你说的是肝细胞，还是肾细胞，还是脑细胞，还是皮肤细胞？
I mean, there's just, like -- There's just -- There's so much -- I mean, this is where it gets so frustrating, because there's just -- There's so much more to know, and the reality is, we need to act before we have all of those answers.
我的意思是，这里面有很多，就像——这里面有很多——有太多的——我的意思是，这就是让人感到如此沮丧的地方，因为这里面有太多的东西需要了解，而现实是，我们需要在得到所有答案之前就采取行动。
I think that's where it really came home to me, that this problem is, like, almost designed to be as difficult as possible for scientists to figure out.
我认为，这就是这个问题真正让我深有感触的地方，这个问题就像是，为科学家出的一道尽可能高难度的题。
And they feel that it will almost be impossible to figure out in the timeline that we need to take action. How much microplastic is in my body?
他们认为，几乎不可能在我们需要采取行动的时限内搞清楚。我们体内有多少微塑料？
Do we know how much is in an average American's body? It's really hard to say.
我们知道一个普通美国人身体里有多少（微塑料）吗？这很难说。
We know that we are ingesting or inhaling tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of particles every year.
我们知道，我们每年会摄入或吸入数万到数十万个颗粒。
How many of those are staying in our body is a harder question.
有多少会留在我们体内是一个更难的问题。
We know things like the average set of lungs has over 400 microplastic particles, and that is likely to be an underestimate, because that's looking for microplastics, which are bigger.
我们知道，平均一组肺中含有超过400个微塑料颗粒，而且这很可能是低估了，因为这是在寻找较大的微塑料。
I mean, it doesn't sound great, 400, but particles -- that's kind of -- They're small. So, I mean, how much is that really? I don't know. It's really hard to say at this point.
我的意思是，400听起来不太好，但是粒子——它们有点——它们很小。所以，我的意思是，这到底有多少呢？我不知道。在这一点上真的很难说。
And I think the science is so new, and they're developing all of these new techniques all the time to try to figure out exactly what the concentration is, how much weight of microplastics, effectively, we have in our bodies.
我认为这门科学太新了，他们一直在开发所有这些新技术，试图确切地弄清楚浓度是多少，我们体内实际上有多少微塑料。
But what do we actually know right now about the impact that these microplastics have on our health?
但是，我们现在实际上对这些微塑料对我们健康的影响了解多少呢？
Yeah, so, we know a lot about the chemical additives into plastic.
是的，所以，我们对添加到塑料中的化学添加剂了解很多。
So that might be something like phthalates, which can disrupt the endocrine system and the reproductive system.
因此，这可能是一些像邻苯二甲酸盐之类的东西，它可以破坏内分泌系统和生殖系统。
That might be something like bisphenol A, which is a chemical that can also have endocrine-disrupting properties. And those can lead to reproductive problems.
这可能是双酚A之类的东西，这是一种也具有内分泌干扰特性的化学物质。这些可能导致生殖问题。
There's evidence that they can produce some cancers.
有证据表明，它们可以造成一些癌症。
But the difficult thing right now is, we know that we have these microplastics in our bodies, but how much of those chemicals are they actually releasing? Is it a lot? Is it a little? How long are they staying in our lungs?
但现在困难的是，我们知道我们体内有这些微塑料，但它们实际上释放了多少化学物质？是很多吗？是很少吗？它们在我们的肺部停留多久？
How long are they staying in our liver? And so that's what scientists are really trying to figure out right now.
它们在我们的肝脏中停留多长时间？这就是科学家们现在真正试图弄清楚的。
