Are you concerned about clean air? The United States has been making efforts to improve air quality since the 1970s. While pollution exposure has been linked to decreased human health and survival, it has not been clear whether improvements in air quality translate into longer life expectancy.

Are you concerned about clean air? The United States has been making efforts to improve air quality since the 1970s. While pollution exposure has been linked to decreased human health and survival, it has not been clear whether improvements in air quality translate into longer life expectancy. Now, in the most recent issue of The New England Journal of Medicine , scientists report that reducing exposure to fine-particulate air pollution contributes to significant improvements in life expectancy in the United States .

Scientists from Brigham Young University, the Harvard School of Public Health, and the Harvard Initiative for Global Health compiled information on life expectancy and fine-particulate air pollution for 211 counties in the major U.S. metropolitan areas. By comparing data from the late 1970s/early 1980s to data from the late 1990s/early 2000s, they found that a decrease in the concentration of fine particles in the air was associated with an increase in average life expectancy. They also found that reductions in pollution were responsible for as much as 15% of the overall increase in life expectancy in the areas studied.

The average increase in life expectancy in the 211 counties in this study over the approximately 20-year period was 2.72 years. Although it is likely that many factors affect life expectancy, this study provides evidence that improvements in air quality improve human health, as well.

Source

NEJM 2009;360:376-386.