Less Pollution Gives People 21 More Weeks to Live

According to a new report presented by researchers on Wednesday, the average American has won an additional 21 weeks of life following pollution-reducing measures employed over the course of the past two decades. Releasing small particles from exhaust pipes or smoke stacks has been forbidden, which means that less such particles end up in people's lungs, and cause less respiratory diseases, such as pneumonia and silicosis. These numbers mean that polluting industries have over twenty years contributed to the average 2.72 years of life increase in lifespan with 15 percent of the time.

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, a team of researchers based at the Brigham Young University in Utah, and led by epidemiologist Arden Pope, says that changing in smoking habits is one among the most important and relevant reasons why the average American lives longer now than he or she did in the early 1980s. Regulations affecting automobiles, diesel engines, steel mills and coal-fired power plants have proven to be most efficient, and are now starting to pay off, they maintain.

The study "provides direct confirmation of the population health benefits of mitigating air pollution and greatly strengthens the foundation of the argument for air-quality management," University of Ottawa scientist Daniel Krewski adds. He also mentions that the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 1.4 percent of all deaths worldwide are happening on account of air pollution and the effects it has on people's bodies.

During the study, Pope and colleagues have used life expectancy, economic, demographic and pollution data from approximately 51 metropolitan areas, and have related them to the general health status of the population. He has uncovered that, in some areas, a 10 micrograms per cubic meter decrease in particle levels in the air means an average increase of 31 weeks (that's nearly 8 months gained) in lifespan.

"It's stunning that the air pollution effect seems to be as robust as it is after controlling for these other things," Pope has told Reuters in a phone interview. He has added that the steeper the decline in particle levels, the more time people gain on average. The scientists argue that even small decreases are beneficial, although the effects of measures recently employed will also take about two decades to show up in statistics.