Date published: 2008/02/28
The BBC says:
London's congestion charge may have delivered a small, unexpected health boost to the capital, say researchers.
The charge was introduced to cut traffic, but a study in Occupational and Environmental Medicine says reduced pollution has aided health as well.
Scientists from two London colleges calculated that since 2003, 1,888 extra years of life had been saved among the city's seven million residents.
...
The link between certain types of traffic pollution and health problems, including heart attack and breathing problems in children, are well-established, and Transport for London's own figures estimate that the capital's poor air quality is responsible for 1,000 premature deaths and 1,000 extra hospital admissions every year.
...
Scientists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and King's College London wanted to examine further if traffic reductions since 2003 could have had a direct impact on health.They used a computer model to work out changes in air pollution based on the traffic figures, and looked for any relationship between this and death rates in areas in or near to the charging "zone".
Within the central charging area itself - where relatively few people actually live - the benefits seemed more significant, with an extra 183 years of life saved for every 100,000 residents.
This does not necessarily mean that every resident received an equal but tiny slice of this, as the benefits to certain people, such as those with existing heart or lung problems, are likely to be greater.
Outside the congestion charge areas, the benefits were far less, totalling an extra 18 years of life per 100,000 residents.
However, because the number of residents there was much higher, this added up to a total of 1,888 years spread across the whole of London.
While acknowledging that the benefits were fairly "modest" in size, the researchers said that traffic-cutting schemes could still be considered as potentially health-improving policies.
Surprise, cars cause pollution. Of course if miniscule (well, what they themselves call "modest") reductions in death from a reduction in pollution is deemed to be a worthwhile objective, then it is all very easy, just shut the world down.
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