CLEAN AIR DESIGN
An Air Quality Knowledge Base and Networking Hub for Researchers, Consultants, Providers and Users
hosted by Robert Grudin (rgrudin@cleanairdesign.com)
Clean Air Design Berkeley, CA
VITAL SIGNS
Cleaner Air Extending Lives, Study Shows
The cleaner the air you breathe, the longer you will live. But how much longer?
Researchers at Brigham Young University examined changes in life expectancy in 51 metropolitan areas, comparing those figures with improvements in air quality in each region from the early 1980s to the late 1990s.
After controlling for smoking, socioeconomic factors and other variables, the scientists found that each decrease of 10 micrograms of pollutant particles per cubic meter of air was associated with an increase of more than seven months in average life expectancy.
Over all, life expectancy increased by an average of two years and eight months in the areas studied. Drawing on data from this and other studies, the researchers estimated that five months of the increase was attributable strictly to improvements in air quality.
“This is a large, nationwide natural experiment,” said C. Arden Pope III, a professor of economics at Brigham Young University and the lead author of the study. “We did an intervention — improved air quality — and the question is, ‘Did we get a return?’ The bottom line is yes, it looks like we did. Our efforts to clean up the air are helping.”
The study is to be published on Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Can we design better health? Air quality has emerged as one of the primary geopolitical issues of the 21st century -- impacting the environment, all nations and all economic sectors. The implications of air quality, in terms of medicine and health insurance alone, are staggering enough to call for major changes in federal policies and heroic corporate investments. While much work has been done in establishing standards for the quality of the air outside our buildings, it is time for architects, designers and developers to come to terms with the variety of parameters that affect interior air quality: climate, location, layout, materials, solar exposure, sealing/curing, ventilation, circulation, filtration, furnishings, sanitation, expense and sustainability. These pages constitute a preliminary effort to create a forum on the hypoallergenic house: a residence providing high air quality without sacrificing comfort or beauty. We invite architects, designers, medical doctors, researchers and other informed parties to join us in discussing the ways and means of improving air quality in our domestic spaces. Insurance companies, who have a significant interest in improving air quality, are invited to join the forum.
For clean air resources (Agencies, Societies, Knowledge, Consultancies, Contractors, Books, Magazines), see Resources. For a briefing on the chemistry and physiology of clean air, go to AIR. For News on the Air, the world's leading clean air news source, see NOTA (updated February 10, 2009). For our news archive covering February - June, 2008, see Archive(March/April), Archive 2 (May/June) and Archive 3 (July/August). For clean air tips from other sites, see Tips. For the clean air blog, see Blog. To submit comments, queries or material for publication, go to Contact.
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