Cleaner air equals longer life, studies show

Reducing traffic pollution and smog can save lives, scientists have said.

Since officials in Dublin banned the sale of coal in 1990, deaths from the lung and heart diseases have dropped.

"We estimated that there were about 243 fewer cardiovascular deaths and 116 fewer respiratory deaths per year in Dublin after the ban on coal sales," said Professor Luke Clancy of St James' Hospital in Dublin.

"These changes were seen immediately in the winter after introduction of the ban," he added in a report in The Lancet journal.

Clancy and his team examined the effect on death rates in the Irish capital in the six years before and after the ban's introduction.

It resulted in a 15 per cent drop in deaths from respiratory diseases and a 10 per cent slide in cardiovascular deaths.

In a separate study in the magazine, Dutch scientists showed that people exposed to traffic fumes over a long period of time may live shorter lives.

Elderly residents living near a main road where air pollutants were high were about twice as likely to die from heart and lung disease than people living farther away, according to the research conducted by Dr Gerard Hoek of Utrecht University.

"These studies, on top of what has been known earlier, provide sufficient evidence to implement measures to reduce [pollution causing] particles from all sources emitting them," said Dr Annette Peters of the National Research Centre for Environment and Health in Neuherberg, Germany. Commenting in the journal, she added that coal-burning and traffic emissions were major sources of pollution worldwide.

- REUTERS

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