Not Smoking But Still Dying —
OPS_admin | Dec 11, 2009 | Comments 0
Americans have swapped one vice for another, and it could be taking months, if not years, off our lives. New research suggests that although the number of smokers in the United States has decreased by 20% in the past 15 years, the number of obese Americans has increased by 48%. If the trends continue, the dangers of obesity will overshadow the public health gains from reduced smoking over the next decade.
The study draws upon data from national health surveys conducted over the past few decades, some stretching back to 1971, which covered a few hundred thousand people. The authors calculated how smoking and obesity affected life span between 1990 and 2005 (the most recent year for which data were available) and extrapolated those rates forward until 2020. According to this analysis, obesity will rob a typical 18-year-old in 2020 of 0.71 years (260 days) of life and 0.91 years (332 days) of quality of life.
More specifically, the average life span gain from not smoking, 0.31 years, was one-third of the average harm done by adding weight, 1.02 years. The paper also reports that, in the highly unlikely event that all Americans quit smoking and reach a normal weight by 2020, the average life span would increase by 3.76 years and 5.16 quality-adjusted years.
Full Story Not Smoking But Still Dying — Kean 2009 (1202): 2 — ScienceNOW.
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If we don't change our ways soon...
A new report by the Royal Society, chaired by Nobel prize-winning biologist Sir John Sulston warns that world population must be stabilized and consumption in wealthy nations must be reduced or the entire planet is in big trouble. As the report reads: "The number of people living on the planet has never been higher, their levels of consumption are unprecedented and vast changes are taking place in the environment. We can choose to rebalance the use of resources to a more egalitarian pattern of consumption... or we can choose to do nothing and to drift into a downward spiral of economic and environmental ills leading to a more unequal and inhospitable future."This is the same warning that President Jimmy Carter gave Americans back in the 1970's - but it was ignored when Ronald Reagan came to power with a "more positive" message basically telling Americans we can do whatever we want. And then after 9/11 - Bush told us all we should go shopping and consume ever more.And now with corporations calling the shots in Washington - long-term sustainability of the planet takes a back seat to short-term profits. If we don't change our ways soon - and embrace clean, alternative energy and educate women around the plant - then we all could be headed for a rough century.-Thom(Is there any chance we will learn in time? Tell us here.) -
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