原来太空辐射真的不会缩短宇航员寿命？！
Space Radiation does not Shorten Astronauts' Lives？！
Astronauts traveling in space meet forms of radiation that are uncommon on Earth. Some of this radiation has been shown to be harmful to human health. It is linked to cancers and heart problems. Yet a new American study suggests the radiation does not shorten astronauts' lives.
宇航员在太空旅行会遇到地球上罕见的辐射。一些辐射已经被证明对人类健康有害。它与癌症和心脏病有关。然而，美国一项新的研究表明，辐射不会缩短宇航员的寿命。
Researchers studied nearly 60 years of health records and other data about male astronauts from the United States. They then compared this data to information about a group of men who are in good health, richer than most Americans and receive good health care: professional athletes.
研究人员研究了近60年来美国男性宇航员的健康记录和其他数据。然后，他们将这些数据与一组健康状况良好、比大多数美国人富裕并接受良好医疗保健的男性——职业运动员——的信息进行了比较。
The study found that neither group has higher rates of dying at a young age. In fact, both groups generally live longer than other Americans.
研究发现，这两组人的早逝率都不高。事实上，这两个群体的寿命都比其他美国人长。
Astronauts are usually well-educated, earn more money and are in better physical condition than the average American. Some earlier research has linked being an astronaut to a lower risk of early death, the researchers noted.
宇航员通常受过良好的教育，比普通美国人挣得更多，身体状况也更好。研究人员指出，早期的一些研究表明，宇航员的早逝风险较低。
The findings were reported in the publication Occupational & Environmental Medicine.
这项研究结果发表在《职业与环境医学》杂志上。
Much of the existing research on mortality rates in astronauts has not yet explore the mental and physical demands of this job. There also has not been a lot of research on whether astronauts show what is known as the "healthy worker effect".
目前关于宇航员死亡率的许多研究还没有探索宇航员的工作对精神和身体的要求。关于宇航员是否表现出所谓的“健康工作者效应”，也没有很多研究。
This effect leads people with employment of any kind to have fewer medical problems than individuals who are unable to work, said Robert Reynolds. He was a member of the study team.
罗伯特·雷诺兹是学习小组的成员，他说，这一效应导致任何类型的就业者都比无法工作的人更少出现健康问题。
Reynolds said, "The challenge has always been to understand if astronauts are as healthy as they would be had they been otherwise comparably employed but had never gone to space at all.” He added, “To do this, we needed to find a group that is comparable on several important factors.”
雷诺兹说：“一直以来，我们面临的挑战是，要弄清楚，如果宇航员们有其他工作，但从来没有上过太空的话，他们是否像现在一样健康。”他补充说，“要做到这一点，我们需要找到一个在几个重要因素上具有可比性的群体。”
He said there was no similar study about people who had been in space.
他说，尚没有其他类似的、针对曾去过太空的人的研究。
His comments were included in an email sent to the Reuters news agency.
他的评论包含在发给路透社的一封电子邮件中。
The researchers compared mortality for male U.S. astronauts to active or former players from Major League Baseball (MLB) and the National Basketball Association (NBA). These men played professionally between 1960 and the middle of 2018.
研究人员将美国男性宇航员的死亡率与美国职业棒球大联盟(MLB)和美国国家篮球协会(NBA)的现役或退役运动员进行了比较。从1960年到2018年年中，他们都是职业球员。
Both the players and astronauts had a lower risk of dying young than the general population, the study found. And there was no difference between the death rates of NBA and MLB players.
研究发现，与普通人群相比，运动员和宇航员英年早逝的风险较低。NBA和MLB球员的死亡率没有区别。
Astronauts were more likely to die of accidents, and less likely to die from heart disease and all other natural causes, the study also found.
研究还发现，宇航员死于意外事故的可能性更大，死于心脏病和其他自然原因的可能性更小。
The results suggest that being in contact with radiation in space might not lead to an early death for astronauts because of heart problems or cancers. In fact, astronauts had a lower rate of death from heart disease than the NBA and MLB players, and had cancer death rates similar to those of the athletes.
研究结果表明，在太空中与辐射接触可能不会导致宇航员因心脏病或癌症而过早死亡。事实上，宇航员死于心脏病的比率比NBA和MLB的球员要低，而且癌症死亡率与运动员相似。
The study was not designed to prove whether or how space travel may directly affect human health. It also did not examine mortality rates among female astronauts or athletes.
这项研究并不是为了证明太空旅行是否直接影响人类健康或如何影响。它也没有调查女性宇航员或运动员的死亡率。
Radiation exposure may also have been much lower during early flights to the moon, said researcher Francis Cucinotta.
研究人员弗朗西斯·库奇诺塔说，在早期飞往月球的航行中，辐射照射可能也要低得多。
Astronauts usually never smoked, leading to a lower risk of heart disease than the general population, he said. Cucinotta is with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and was not involved in the study.
他说，宇航员通常从不吸烟，比一般人患心脏病的风险要低。库奇诺塔就职于拉斯维加斯内华达大学，并没有参与这项研究。
Diet and physical exercise also set astronauts and professional athletes apart from the rest of the population, said Michael Delp. He is a researcher with Florida State University in Tallahassee.
饮食和体育锻炼也将宇航员和职业运动员与其他人群区分开来，迈克尔·德尔普说。他是塔拉哈西佛罗里达州立大学的研究员。
He said a job requiring physical fitness can add to the healthy worker effect.
他说，一份需要健康的身体素质的工作可以增加健康工作者效应。
Even for other people, Delp said, “remaining or becoming physically active and maintaining a well-balanced diet greatly improves overall health and well-being, and can enhance successful aging.”
即使对其他人来说，德尔普说，“保持运动，均衡饮食，可以大大改善整体健康，延缓衰老。”
【VOCABULARY】
1. radiation n. 辐射；放射线
2. generally adv. 一般地；通常；普遍地
3. note vt. 注意；记录；注解
4. mortality n. 死亡率
5. exposure n. 暴露；揭露
6. require v. 要求；需要；命令；规定
7. overall adj. 全部的；总体的；全面考虑的
8. enhance vt. 提高；增加；加强
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