Study is first to show tie between less pollution, longer life, researchers say
updated 8:30 p.m. ET Jan. 21, 2009
LOS ANGELES - Cleaner air over the past two decades has added nearly five months to average life expectancy in the United States, according to a federally funded study.
Researchers said it is the first study to show that reducing air pollution translates into longer lives.
Between 1978 and 2001, Americans’ average life span increased almost three years to 77, and as much as 4.8 months of that can be attributed to cleaner air, researchers from BrighamYoungUniversity and Harvard School of Public Health reported in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.