司机不经意的小动作 竟有致癌风险

It is the quintessential sign of summer. But now scientists are warning that hanging your arm out of a car window greatly increases your chance of getting cancer on the left side of your body. Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle used a federal database to analyse skin cancer data and found that two particularly nasty types of cancer are far more likely to occur on the left side.

也许这是炎炎夏日中很常见的景象------开车的司机在行驶过程中将胳膊随意“搭”在窗外，这种开车方式本来应该只受到交警叔叔的“红牌罚下”，然而近日的一项研究报告将这种行为更视为对身体极为危险的举动之一，因为这样会增加身体左部分的“癌症风险”。据悉，美国西雅图华盛顿大学的研究员说：“我们根据联邦数据库的数据分析了这种情况，这种不健康的开车方式会增加皮肤癌的风险。”

The scientists discovered that for melanomas that only occurred on one side of the body, 52 per cent of those cases were on the left side. When they examined the data for merkel cell carcinomas - another type of skin cancer - they found 53 percent were on the left side. Compounding the results, researchers also found that on the upper arms, 55 percent of merkel cell cases developed on the left side.

科学家研究发现黑素瘤(源于皮肤，粘膜，眼和中枢神经系统色素沉着区域的黑素细胞的恶性肿瘤)一般经常出现在身体的一侧，据悉，有52%的病例是出现在患者的左侧。而每年美国有25000个恶性黑素瘤新增病例，死亡约6000人。发病率在急速上升。日光照射是危险因素，同样危险因素还包括家族史，发生恶性斑痣，较大的先天性黑素细胞痣和发育不良性痣综合征。此外，另外一种皮肤癌---默克尔细胞癌也有存在与身体左侧的倾向，概率更高为55%。科学家警告，这种皮肤癌更容易在人体的左臂上半部生成。

Writing in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, the researchers said: ' Both melanoma and MCC are significantly more likely to arise on the left than the right, and this effect was most prominent on the arm. 'Driver-side automobile ultraviolet exposure (approximately 5-fold stronger on the left than right arm) is a likely contributing factor.' The results seemingly back up research done in countries where drivers sit on the right.

此研究成果发表在《美国皮肤病学会杂志》上，研究员说：“两种皮肤癌在人体左部分产生的机率相比右部分会更大，而且在手臂上产生的影响恐怕是永久的。”这样说来，司机在夏日高温的时候将左臂伸出窗外，让其既紧贴着高温的车表皮，又同时接受高温的暴晒，患上皮肤癌的机率大增就不是那么奇怪了。据悉，这项研究还将继续在“驾驶座位于车辆右侧”的国家范围内做调查，看看司机把右臂放于窗外患上皮肤癌的机率是不是同样高呢？