Editorial in 'Epidemiology' journal contrasts deaths postponed and lives prolonged
The November issue of the prestigious journal ‘Epidemiology’ carried an editorial by Bert Brunekreef (Institute of Risk Assessment Sciences, University of Utrecht), with IOM co-authors Brian Miller and Fintan Hurley.
Contrasting today’s increasing life expectancy with Aldous Huxley’s fictional view of a future totalitarian 'Brave New World', with its lifelong health care followed by euthanasia for everyone in their sixties, the editorial emphasises that efforts to improve health through reducing environmental insults such as air pollution may prolong life, but not indefinitely. Statements about 'lives saved' or 'deaths avoided' can be misleading, while statements about increase in life expectancy are more correct, if less dramatic for media headlines.
The three authors are in the forefront of work on quantitative predictions of the health benefits of improving air quality by reducing particulate pollution throughout Europe.
The abstract of this editorial is available at...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18049188