Average life expectancy in the United States has increased by five months thanks to cleaner air over the past two decades, according to a federally funded study. Americans’ average life span increased almost three years to 77 between 1978 and 2001. It’s the first study to show that air quality as an effect of life expectancy.
From The Huffington Post:
For the study, scientists used government data to track particulate pollution levels over two decades in 51 U.S. cities. They compared these changes to life expectancies calculated from death records and census data. They adjusted the results to take into account other things that might affect life expectancy, such as smoking habits, income, education and migration.
On average, particulate matter levels fell from 21 micrograms per cubic meter of air to 14 micrograms per cubic meter in the cities studied. At the same time, Americans lived an average 2.72 years longer.
“We saw that communities that had larger reductions in air pollution on average had larger increases in life expectancies,” said the study’s lead author, C. Arden Pope III, a Brigham Young epidemiologist.
It seems pretty obvious that this would the the result of such a study – is it really surprising that we’re all healthier and can expect to live longer when we’re not inhaling grit particles from air pollution on a daily basis? What’s nice about this study, though, is that now that there’s a number on the increase in life span that people can expect from cleaner air, more clean air laws might get pushed through.
Link [The Huffington Post]
Photo credit: Flickr user Clinton Steeds
