Wednesday, April 6, 2016

"Studies Show" That Most of Us Fall for Bubble Gum Science

Since that time, the Clean Air Act has repeatedly been challenged as costly and unnecessary. As a fight brews over President Obama’s new use of the law to address global warming, it’s worth re-examining the vast difference the law has already made in the quality of the air we breathe, and in the length of our lives.
Numerous studies have found that the Clean Air Act has substantially improved air quality and averted tens of thousands of premature deaths from heart and respiratory disease. Here, I offer new estimates of the gains in life expectancy due to the improvement in air quality since 1970 — based on observations from the current “smog capital” of the world, China. (To learn more about how this was calculated, click here.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/25/upshot/the-connection-between-cleaner-air-and-longer-lives.html?_r=1

I hate bubble gum science like this.  It's obvious that normal air quality will make life better, but teasing out causality when so many factors are changing - food, medications, etc, makes predictions like the ones in this article a fool's game.

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