Clean Air Associated With Longer Life, But Are More Studies Worth the Cost?
A recent study indicates that clean air is associated with longer life.
The results of it indicate that if we make a reduction in fine-particle pollution, people can expect to live longer from coast to coast in the United States; but it costs money--and even manufacturing jobs--to clean-up the atmosphere of our cities.
I question the value of spending taxpayer's hard-earned dollars for government grant-funded studies, which prove that which is already common knowledge, in this commentary.
The study proved that there is a direct relationship between levels of fine-particle pollutants in air and life expectancy.
It indicates if you make a reduction of the most damaging kind of pollutants, by as little as 10 micrograms per cubic meter of atmosphere, you can expect to live longer.
Brigham Young University (BYU) professor of economics C.
Arden Pope III, had his research published in New England Journal of Medicine on January 22, 2009.
The study included 51 metropolitan cities from Tampa Bay, Florida to Portland, Oregon.
Their research was a variation of another study that associated mortality and fine-particle pollution, which is the most dangerous kind of air contamination.
Pope said that there were two populations, which they investigated.
There was a daily-time series in which they followed people from day to day; and the study also included a cohort of people that they followed-up on, to see what caused their death and when they died.
Pope said that the research ascertained that cleaner air could help you to live longer.
Both of those studies provided fairly clear evidence that fine-particle pollution does indeed increase the risk of dying.
In his investigation, they took the life expectancy of people in 51 metropolitan areas.
The team of scientist had information about air pollution levels, from studies performed in the late '70s to the early '80s; plus they had data from studies done in the '90s, and in the first decade of the 21st century.
They wanted to determine if the changes in air quality was associated to changes in life expectancy.
The results of data, which they gathered, were comparable to what they expected to see in the previous studies.
He said it was clear that you could expect to live longer--by about 3 year--with cleaner air to breathe.
But if we make the air cleaner in cities, it definitely cost taxpayers more money due to the cost of anti-pollution measures involved, and it might cost jobs too.
Morton Lippmann of U.
S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Air Science Advisory Committee member, and Director of New York University Center for Particulate Matter Health Effects Research Center, followed recommendations the EPA staff made in 2007.
The committee had set 14 micrograms per cubic meter of air as the upper limit.
The vote for implementing lower limits was lopsided; it was 19 in favor of setting the lower limit, with only 2 against it.
But the EPA set the limit at 15 micrograms per cubic meter of air, a level Lippmann associated as being significantly too high.
He said it was inexcusable to set the limits that high, from the perspective of public health.
But from a political standpoint, the lower level allows for a better chance of economic growth; or at least it lessens the chance of more lay-offs.
After analyzing the report, Lippmann said he wasn't really surprised that they found a smaller estimate of deaths, because it was in agreement with those they observed in the previous study.
The BYU report claimed that average U.
S.
life expectancy may have increased by about three years in cities of the research, over the period of the study; and cleaner air may have helped make life expectancy longer by as much as 15 percent in some metropolitan cities.
The researchers said the report justifies another government grant, for another study.
There were scientific questions about how cleaner air might help you to live longer.
He wants to discover exactly what it is about fine particle pollutants, which make them so dangerous; and so that would mean another big, fat government grant.
Lippmann said there's no doubt that pollution does great harm.
But he wants to know the exact chemical entities that are within particles of pollution, which do the most damage.
Harvard School of Public Health associate professor of Community Health, and co-author of the study, Majid Ezzati said that the study answers at least one basic issue; and that's that pollution is bad, a deduction the team of investigators felt was well worth the funding for them to reach the conclusion.
Ezzati said they knew that air contamination was bad; but he wants to know if lowering it really has been good over the long haul, in light of the present economic situation.
While we all may agree that better air is good, what is the political fall-out? I suspect politicians will continue the fight: Economics versus cleaner air; and scientists will continue to get grants to prove that which we already know.
The results of it indicate that if we make a reduction in fine-particle pollution, people can expect to live longer from coast to coast in the United States; but it costs money--and even manufacturing jobs--to clean-up the atmosphere of our cities.
I question the value of spending taxpayer's hard-earned dollars for government grant-funded studies, which prove that which is already common knowledge, in this commentary.
The study proved that there is a direct relationship between levels of fine-particle pollutants in air and life expectancy.
It indicates if you make a reduction of the most damaging kind of pollutants, by as little as 10 micrograms per cubic meter of atmosphere, you can expect to live longer.
Brigham Young University (BYU) professor of economics C.
Arden Pope III, had his research published in New England Journal of Medicine on January 22, 2009.
The study included 51 metropolitan cities from Tampa Bay, Florida to Portland, Oregon.
Their research was a variation of another study that associated mortality and fine-particle pollution, which is the most dangerous kind of air contamination.
Pope said that there were two populations, which they investigated.
There was a daily-time series in which they followed people from day to day; and the study also included a cohort of people that they followed-up on, to see what caused their death and when they died.
Pope said that the research ascertained that cleaner air could help you to live longer.
Both of those studies provided fairly clear evidence that fine-particle pollution does indeed increase the risk of dying.
In his investigation, they took the life expectancy of people in 51 metropolitan areas.
The team of scientist had information about air pollution levels, from studies performed in the late '70s to the early '80s; plus they had data from studies done in the '90s, and in the first decade of the 21st century.
They wanted to determine if the changes in air quality was associated to changes in life expectancy.
The results of data, which they gathered, were comparable to what they expected to see in the previous studies.
He said it was clear that you could expect to live longer--by about 3 year--with cleaner air to breathe.
But if we make the air cleaner in cities, it definitely cost taxpayers more money due to the cost of anti-pollution measures involved, and it might cost jobs too.
Morton Lippmann of U.
S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Air Science Advisory Committee member, and Director of New York University Center for Particulate Matter Health Effects Research Center, followed recommendations the EPA staff made in 2007.
The committee had set 14 micrograms per cubic meter of air as the upper limit.
The vote for implementing lower limits was lopsided; it was 19 in favor of setting the lower limit, with only 2 against it.
But the EPA set the limit at 15 micrograms per cubic meter of air, a level Lippmann associated as being significantly too high.
He said it was inexcusable to set the limits that high, from the perspective of public health.
But from a political standpoint, the lower level allows for a better chance of economic growth; or at least it lessens the chance of more lay-offs.
After analyzing the report, Lippmann said he wasn't really surprised that they found a smaller estimate of deaths, because it was in agreement with those they observed in the previous study.
The BYU report claimed that average U.
S.
life expectancy may have increased by about three years in cities of the research, over the period of the study; and cleaner air may have helped make life expectancy longer by as much as 15 percent in some metropolitan cities.
The researchers said the report justifies another government grant, for another study.
There were scientific questions about how cleaner air might help you to live longer.
He wants to discover exactly what it is about fine particle pollutants, which make them so dangerous; and so that would mean another big, fat government grant.
Lippmann said there's no doubt that pollution does great harm.
But he wants to know the exact chemical entities that are within particles of pollution, which do the most damage.
Harvard School of Public Health associate professor of Community Health, and co-author of the study, Majid Ezzati said that the study answers at least one basic issue; and that's that pollution is bad, a deduction the team of investigators felt was well worth the funding for them to reach the conclusion.
Ezzati said they knew that air contamination was bad; but he wants to know if lowering it really has been good over the long haul, in light of the present economic situation.
While we all may agree that better air is good, what is the political fall-out? I suspect politicians will continue the fight: Economics versus cleaner air; and scientists will continue to get grants to prove that which we already know.