Does Clean Air = Long Life?
I didn’t believe it at first, but the statistics are compelling…of all the things you consider when being healthy, clean air may be among the most important. How else can you explain the higher longevity of those living on Coastal areas, away from industrial pollution? (And of course not smoking is also a large component of clean air)
At first I didn’t believe it…I’d heard all the alarm bells regarding pesticides and clean water during my lifetime, but never saw longevity stats to convincingly sell the systematic dangers (other than the occasional immediate causal illness or death). Air quality, however, is another story as longevity appears to be HUGELY connected. The evidence would be in Blue Zone studies, Lung Cancer and smoking statistics, and longevity statistics in various States. The evidence is rather subtle, and sometimes hard to separate from other healthy statistics (ie Blue Staters tend to live on the coasts and eat healthier, excise more, are better-educated). However, we will try and sort all of this out!
Blue Zones, for starters, tout exercise, fruit, vegetable, fish heavy diets, family and community, but each are curiously near the Coasts and away from industrial pollution (famously Sardinia, Okinawa, Loma Linda). If all were known, would the resultant medical advice be “if you have clean air, eat whatever you want!”? The reason I say this is the State of Hawaii. They have notoriously high longevity numbers, and yet many are overweight and eat a high carb, high-fat diet (think pu-pu platters with spam, eggs, and rice here). They also have low Covid numbers (fresh air?). This may be complicated by the high Asian population (which tends to eat a high veggie-fish diet and live longer) but one wonders. Not scientific data I know but I’ll get to that part. (Lite, 2009)
The longevity statistics for various States is another example. There are seven states where average longevity is greater than 80, Hawaii, California, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Washington. There are four states where avg. longevity is less than 76, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Hawaii is first at 81.5, California second at 81. Mississippi is last at 74.6. The six highest longevity states are also in the “least smoking top ten” (Utah leads at 8.9%), while the bottom four longevity states are in the “highest smoking top ten” states (West Virginia leads at 23.8%). Smoking is definitely a big component of clean air, but apparently not the only component. Curiously, Utah doesn’t have particularly high longevity (79.4), so before you can say “smoking affects clean air which affects longevity”, you begin to wonder why coastal states have higher longevity (gulf states excepted) and inland states lower longevity (Utah? Do all those healthy Mormons live within some kind of mountain state inversion layer?) Gulf States? Well a great deal of oil industry there, lower health standards and perhaps more still air (not like that coming off the Pacific and Atlantic?). Of course this is complicated by other demographics…coastal states have more educated and wealthier people (notoriously implicated in longevity stats), but then Hawaii, Minnesota, and New Jersey don’t exactly have that in spades. W. Virginia and Kentucky rank poorly in many health statistics, are coal states, and many smoke. But then that kinda reinforces my point? (worldpopulationreview.com,2021),(worldpopulationreview.com,2021),(worldometers.info,n.d.)
Looking at the same stats by country reveals the same kind of data…the top ten are Hong Kong, Japan, Macao, Switzerland, Singapore, Italy, Spain, Australia, Channel Islands, Iceland (all island or coastal places except…hey! How did Switzerland get in there?). The bottom ten are all poor African nations, certainly not helped by poverty and poor public health but also many live far inland.
Now at this point you will say “So what? Everyone knows that smoking is implicated in lower-longevity, what does living on an island or near a big ocean have to do with it all”? Well consider the Covid statistics…by now most of us know that the virus cannot transmit very well outdoors, and especially where there is moving air (um…islands and on Atlantic/Pacific coast?) Well looky here, Puerto Rico and Hawaii lead the league, with <7000 cases per 100,000 (top ten all coastal), while the bottom ten mostly inland (led by North Dakota at over 22,000 per 100,000). The International numbers are not used here, as they are compromised by some irresponsible reporting practices, but New Zealand has a very low rate per capita. (statista.com,n.d.)
Finally, there is the curious statistic of clean air/smoking/lung cancer which is the most interesting (and telling). A study of the historic incidence of lung cancer states that it was almost non-existent 200 years ago, began climbing significantly at the start of the 20th century, and reached its peak around 1950 (coincident with the invention and popularity of cigarettes and other “smoked” tobacco products). Another article states that 10% of the men, and 20% of the women that get lung cancer have never smoked. It goes onto say that these non-smoker’s cancers are from 1) Naturally occurring radon gas 2) Secondhand smoke and 3) Industrial pollution. Since radon is naturally occurring and there were few deaths before the advent of smoking, I’d rule that out. Since smokers can also be affected by industrial pollution (ie coal mine workers who smoke, the prevalence of the internal combustion engine and fossil-fuel burning), I’d up the contribution of industrial pollution/fossil fuels/lack of fresh air to about 30% of all lung cancers. I would buttress this number with the curious fact that once again, island and coastal areas with little industrial pollution have fewer lung cancers (this map looks an awful lot like the longevity and smoking maps!) (erj.ersjournals.com,n.d.),(McDowell,2020)
