塌陷英文时文阅读

RDF

的一位管理者告诉我的那样，他们经营的最终动力还是赢利。

RDF

的创意总监

Stephen Lam bert---

过去曾是

BBC

制作出 的一些最精良的记录片的负责人

----

就是对那盘难辞

其咎的宣传录像带进行编辑加工的人。

这一事实虽然令人悲哀，

却是背后驱策电视业的浮士

德契约的鲜活例证。这不只是

Lambert

个人的污点，这种腐败是全行业的。

考研时文阅读（

15A

）

How safe is biosafe?

Dressed

in

blue

scrubs

and

disposable

underwear,

Simon

Caidan

cautiously

transfers

liquid into a series of bottles inside the airtight cabinet in front of him. His arms are pushed up to

his elbows in a pair of gloves sealed to the glass, preventing him from coming into contact with

the potentially deadly material inside.

This

is

one

of

the

most secure

research

laboratories

in

Britain,

dealing

with some

of

the

world's most dangerous diseases. The threat posed by the pathogens kept here, on the outskirts of

north London, is so great that the rooms are maintained at a lower air pressure than the outside to

ensure nothing can escape when the doors are opened.

All the air passing through the building is filtered several times to strip it of even the finest

particles, while staff have to remove all clothing before entering and must shower before leaving.

If there is a leakage, the entire laboratory can be sealed and fumigated.

Y

et, despite these formidable safety measures, it is from a laboratory similar to this that a

foot and mouth virus is thought to have escaped, infecting nearby livestock. Initial reports into the

outbreak in Normandy

, Surrey

, have pointed to a high-security laboratory in Pirbright, three miles

away,

shared

by

the

government-funded

Institute

for

Animal

Health

and

a

private

drug

firm,

Merial UK.

The incident has sparked grave concerns about the state of the country's secure laboratories

and the threat they pose. If a virus can escape from one such laboratory, can it happen again? And

next time, could it be from a lab handling deadly human diseases?

In Britain, there are 15 ―Containment Level Four‖

laboratories, the maximum bio-security

level, across the country. Each handles some of the deadliest organisms known to man and animals:

diseases that are highly infectious, fatal even in low doses and impossible to treat.

“

I am surprised there has been a

release from a facility in the UK, of all places,‖ said Dr

Ingegerd

Kallings,

an

expert

on

bio- safety

for

the

World

Health

Organization

and

the

Swedish

Institute for Infectious Disease Control. ―Y

ou have good regulations

in place.‖ For Dr Kallings,

the

escape

of

foot

and

mouth

into the countryside

around

the

Pirbright

laboratory

illustrates

the

weak link in the world's bio-security measures: people.

―It comes down to a lax attitude among the staff,‖ she said. ―Y

ou can't really blame the age of

a facility for an escape, as ultimately the bio-

security is not a technical issue.‖

What she, and other scientists, fear is that the tight regulations and safety measures can be

rendered useless by carelessness. Adhering to safety protocols is tedious, and researc

hers can pick

up

bad

habits

or

become complacent.

Washing contaminated

material

down

the wrong sink, for

instance; carrying

infected samples

between rooms,

or

removing

equipment

from

the

laboratory

before it has been properly decontaminated. All are hard to monitor and prevent.

生物安全有多安全

?

身穿蓝色防护服和一次性内衣

, < /p>

西蒙﹒凯旦小心谨慎地将液体转移到面前密封柜中的

一套小瓶子里 。

他将双臂伸进封帖在玻璃上的一副手套里，

直至肘部，

以防接触盗柜子里那

具潜在致命性的物质。

这是英国最为安全的科研实验室之一，位于伦敦北部郊区，从 事世界上一些最具危险

性疾病的研究。

保存在这里的病原体具有 非常大的危险性，

因此实验室内的气压维持在低于

外界气压的状 态，以确保开门时不会发生任何泄露。

所有经由实验室流通的空气都经过数次过滤，

以除去哪怕最微小的颗粒，

同时，

工作

人员在进入前必须除掉所有衣物，

而且沐浴后才能离开。

如果发生泄漏，

整个实验室都要封

闭，进行熏蒸消毒。

然而，

尽管采取了这些严密的安全措施，

据认为还是有一个与其类似的 实验室发生了

口蹄疫病毒泄露，感染了附近的牲畜。关于萨里郡诺曼底所暴发的口蹄疫疫 情的初步报告，

把矛头指向了位于

3

英 里之外皮尔布赖特的一所高安全性实验室。

这所实验室由政府资助的

动物卫生研究所和私营的英国梅里亚尔药品公司共管。

该事件引发了人们对英国安全实验室的状况及其所构成威胁的 严重关切。

如果病毒能

从这样的实验室外泄，

< br>那么此类事件是否会再次发生？而下一次，

病毒是否会从研究致命性

人类疾病的实验室外泄？

英国拥有

15

所“四级防护”实验室，即全国最高生物安全级别实验室。每所实验室

所研究的都是一 些已知的对人和动物最致命的微生物：

最有高度传染性的疾病，

哪怕是最小

剂量也会致命，而且绝无治愈的可能。

“我很惊讶，在所有那些地方中，偏偏是在英国发生了泄露，

”世界 卫生组织及瑞典传

染病研究所的生物安全专家英格德﹒克林斯博士说，

< br>“你们已经制定了严格的规章制度啊。

”

在克林斯博士可 看来，

口蹄疫病毒外泄到皮尔布赖特实验室附近的乡村，

表明了 世界生物安

全措施中存在的薄弱环节：人。

“归结到一点，

就是工作人员态度松懈，

”

她说，

“你的确不能把泄露的原因归为设备老

< br>化，因为归根结底生物安全不是一个技术问题。

”

她和其 他科学家所担心的是，

严格的规章制度和安全措施会因粗心大意而变得毫无用处。

恪守安全议定书是件令人厌烦的事，

研究人员会染上各种坏习惯或变得 满不在乎。

例如，

在

错误的水池冲洗被 污染的物品，

携带被感染的样品穿梭于各个房间，

或者未经适当 消毒就将

设备带出实验室。所有这一切都难以进行监督和预防。

考研时文阅读（

15B

）

Malic

ious

behavior

is

even

harder to control,

if

a

member

of staff

decides

to

smuggle

a

virus

out

of

a

facility.

Doctors

and scientists,

as

the

recent

terrorist

attacks

on

Glasgow

airport

showed, can be radicalized like anyone else and many experts have pointed at the folly of keeping

stocks of dangerous diseases so readily at hand.

Then there are the facilities themselves. Can a simple household electric shower, as used in

the

National

Institute

for

Medical

Research

where

Mr

Caidan

works,

for

instance,

remove

all

traces of a virus?

―Lab

accidents

happen

more

frequently

than

the

public

knows,‖ says

Ed

Hammond,

of

the

Sunshine

Project,

a

non-profit-making

organization

that

monitors

the

use

of

biological

agents.

―They are not always as spectacular as the one in the

UK,

but I believe there's a real culture of

denial about the scale of the problem.‖

In 2004, a Russian scientist working on an Ebola vaccine died after pricking her hand with a

syringe,

while

in

April

2005,

a

pandemic

strain

of

Asian

flu

was

released

by

a

laboratory

in

America

after

it was

accidentally

put

into

test

kits

sent

to scientists

around

the world.

The

last

known

case

of

smallpox

occurred

in

1978,

when

a

researcher

has

resulted

in

the

death

of

a

member of the public...so far.

But campaigners fear that, with more and more research being carried out on these hazardous

organisms, the risk of accidents and escapes is increasing. The viruses kept in Containment Level

Four laboratories are among the most infectious. Just a few of the tiny organisms are needed to

cause

disease.

Once

out

in

the

community,

they

would

spread

quickly,

with

little

chance

of

controlling them, and there are effective treatments for few of them.

At the National Institute for Medical Research, scientists are studying the deadly H5N1 avian

flu

virus.

Samples

from

infected

people

are

brought

to

the

facility

in

London's

Mill

Hill

for

analysis. Researchers have also been working on the 1918 pandemic flu strain that killed about 50

million

people.

If

this

strain

of

the

virus

were

to

escape,

it

could

cause

a

fresh

pandemic,

as

virtually no one would have immunity.

“

This is why the regulations have to be so strict,‖ explains Mr Caidan, the head of safety for

the site. ―We are not just protecting our staff, but the environment and the general public.‖

So why are we taking the risk at all? ―We need to carry out research on these organisms so

we can understand them better and produce ways of treating them,‖ says Prof Philip Duffus, an

animal

virologist

at

Bristol

University.

―We

also

need

to

handle

samples

for

diagnosis

of

these

diseases.‖

While the

investigation

into how the foot and mouth virus escaped from the Pirbright site

continues, there are now doubts as to whether the laboratory is still fit for purpose. There are also

questions

about

whether

liquid

waste

from

the

Merial

buildings

and

the

Institute

for

Animal

Health

laboratory was treated sufficiently to kill any virus it contained, and investigators are still

examining whether the disease could have been carried off the site by a member of staff.

Regardless of the outbreak's cause, the safety of Britain's high-security laboratories will have

to

be

improved.

The

WHO

will

publish

new

international

standards

for

containing

dangerous

pathogens

next

year. The

fear

of

the

escape

of

a

deadly

human

virus

is sending

many

a shiver

down white-coated spines.

如果一 名工作人员决意把病毒偷偷带出实验室，那么这种恶意行为就会更加难以控制。

最近格拉 斯哥机场遭到的恐怖袭击表明，

医生和科学家与其他人一样也会变成激进分子，