Cleaner Air Brings Drop in Death Rate [View All]

From today's NYT:

When air pollution in a city declines, the city benefits with a directly proportional drop in death rates, a new study has found.

For each decrease of 1 microgram of soot per cubic meter of air, death rates from cardiovascular disease, respiratory illness and lung cancer decrease by 3 percent — extending the lives of 75,000 people a year in the United States. The association held even after controlling for smoking and body mass index.

The scientists periodically measured concentrations of soot, or particulate air pollution, in each city. At the same time, they tracked disease and mortality among 8,096 residents. Particulate air pollution consists of a mixture of liquid and solid particles, mostly a result of fossil fuel combustion and high-temperature industrial processes. By definition, the particles have a diameter less than 2.5 microns, or about one ten-thousandth of an inch.

In Steubenville, for example, soot declined to 22 micrograms per cubic meter from 27 over the course of the study, and the city had a corresponding 25 percent decrease in mortality risk. "Consistently," Dr. Laden said, "in the cities where there was the most cleanup, there was also the greatest decrease in risk of death."
Dr. Laden said the study supported what the federal scientific advisers had advocated: lowering the air quality standard below the present 15 micrograms per cubic meter. "There was discussion about lowering it to 12," she said, "and this study supports that."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/21/health/21soot.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

For non-smokers, the real health threat is "fossil fuel combustion and high-temperature industrial processes".
Time to subject SUVs to emissions standards?