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Lower Air Pollution Means Longer Life

Posted by timothy on from the but-it's-a-dry-pollution dept.

thefickler writes "A new study by the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) has found a strong link between air quality and life expectancy. The researchers looked at air pollution, deaths and census data for 51 metropolitan areas between 1978 and 2001, and what they found was a direct correlation between improving air quality and extending life expectancy. People lived about 2.72 years longer over that time span and at least 15 percent of that increased life expectancy was from a decrease in air pollution."

15 of 272 comments (clear)

  1. Wow, that's informative and interesting.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Pollution is bad for you. Well Duh...

    1. Re:Wow, that's informative and interesting.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      I fart in your general direction.

  2. They needed a study? by areusche · · Score: 4, Funny

    They needed a study to correlate the relationship between heavy coughing and longevity? Being a doctored researcher must be a great life.

    1. Re:They needed a study? by Architect_sasyr · · Score: 5, Funny

      If common sense was a viable guide to life than we wouldn't need science.

      Or most warning labels...

      --
      Me failed English...
      FreeBSD over Linux. If my comments seem odd, this may explain...
    2. Re:They needed a study? by Anthony_Cargile · · Score: 4, Funny

      Or most warning labels...

      Oblig. bash quote:

      "I'm not saying we should kill all of the stupid people in the world, but maybe if we just removed all of the unnecessary warning labels the problem would correct itself"

    3. Re:They needed a study? by Schemat1c · · Score: 1, Funny

      "I'm not saying we should kill all of the stupid people in the world, but maybe if we just removed all of the unnecessary warning labels the problem would correct itself"

      That would just ensure the survival of more lawyers. Ah hell those bastards would figure out a way to survive anyway, parasites are like that.

      --

      "Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better." - Unknown
    4. Re:They needed a study? by mh1997 · · Score: 3, Funny

      "I'm not saying we should kill all of the stupid people in the world, but maybe if we just removed all of the unnecessary warning labels the problem would correct itself"

      What if you are not smart enough to realize that you are one of the stupid people?

  3. Air quality is for socialists. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    If you're a libertarian like me, you want no regulation of pollution.

    Frankly, air quality is for those goddamn socialists states - like Singapore, or Denmark.

    1. Re:Air quality is for socialists. by Forrest+Kyle · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yes, please throw us all together and stop hampering us with your giant government. That way, by the time we destroy our little area with the evil of doing business, we will have built giant space-faring pleasure yachts and you can watch us fly away into the galaxy from your little government issued mud hut.

      But hey, you'll live 5 months longer than me. Whooptee doo.

    2. Re:Air quality is for socialists. by flajann · · Score: 3, Funny

      And that gives us a solution to the libertarian problem. Throw them all together in a small area, let them regulate themselves, and the destruction the wreck on the land and air will kill them all off.

      And you hate and despise us Libertarians why? All we want is FREEDOM.

      Of course, I can understand perfectly well if you would rather have fascists control your life instead.

      Of course, I am wondering what this has to do with air quality.

      But I am used to it.

      • Some hate me for being a MAN.
      • Some hate me for being intelligent.
      • Some hate me for my dermal chromatics.
      • Some hate me for being an Atheist.
      • And now some hate me for loving FREEDOM.

      Well, I guess you just can't please everybody. Sigh.

      --
      Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
    3. Re:Air quality is for socialists. by iminplaya · · Score: 3, Funny

      ...we will have built giant space-faring pleasure yachts...

      BAH! You will have built Ferengi Marauders and will be selling planetary time shares.

      --
      What?
  4. Re:Correlation is not Causation by rockNme2349 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I used to think that Correlation implied causation; then I took a statistics class. Now I don't.

    --
    Sewage Treatment Facilities - "Our duty is clear."
  5. Re:15% of 2.72 years? 5 months? by gandhi_2 · · Score: 2, Funny

    This isn't a bad idea. With 5 extra months of filtering the air with your alveoli, the air is bound to be a little cleaner.

    --
    THL phish sticks
  6. Re:Great! - I live in Los Angeles :-( by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Man, I'd kill for some of the pure acid that was present in the 1970's.

  7. Re:Correlation is not Causation by nomadic · · Score: 2, Funny

    I really hate this phrase. The more I see it used, the more I'm convinced it's just people trying to sound smart.

    It's a useful phrase on slashdot. If someone uses it at the beginning of their post, I can safely assume they don't know what they're talking about and ignore the rest.