New study suggests one’s life span can be increased with long-term clean air exposure.
Wired PR News.com — A new study has proposed that clean air exposure can add months to one’s life expectancy. As reported by the Associated Press (AP), the federally funded study by Brigham Young University and Harvard School of Public Health researchers has shown there to have been an increase in the average life span of Americans from 1978 to 2001, with approximately five months being attributed to cleaner air.
Air pollution has for decades been recognized as a public safety concern. Environmental health expert, Dr. Joel Kaufman of the University of Washington is quoted as stating of the results of the study, “It shows that our efforts as a country to control air pollution have been well worth the expense.”
The study tracked air pollution levels using government records and data that spanned more than two decades. Lead author of the study, C. Arden Pope III, is quoted by the AP as stating, “We saw that communities that had larger reductions in air pollution on average had larger increases in life expectancies.” The passing of the Clean Air Act revision, which provided for more authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce environmental safety policies, is partly credited with the progress made with efforts for improving air quality.
Information about the research is published in Thursday’s release of The New England Journal of Medicine.
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