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Lower Air Pollution Means Longer Life
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."
I really don't care about an extra 2-3 years of nursing home hell where I'm fed through a tube and can't remember my own name. I'm sure I'll feel differently when I'm closer to that time of my life, but right now it's just not on my list of priorities to extend that part of my life which is certain not to be the best.
What I do care about is QUALITY of life. I bet the last few years those people who live in a more polutted place spend are not happy healthy years. Show me stats on the last 10 years of life and how sick people were.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Fantastic is an overstatement.
True, there are tons of buses and you can to most places using public transportation. The problem with LA public transit is it can be impractical to do so. This isn't a failing of the transit system necessarily, but because LA is the poster child for urban sprawl.
To get to work (an 18 mile drive) takes me just under 2 hours on the bus and I'd have to catch multiple buses. I can drive it in 30 mins -- with traffic.
Similarly, there are MANY miles of tracks for the Metro rail system too, but again, LA is too big and the accessibility of the rail system is limited at best. For example, the rail almost completely ignores West LA (where I live).
Fact: Everything I say is fiction.