[Deputy Barnes]

From 1990 to 2014 the average lifespan of a Chinese peasant increased from 68 to 75 years. China is now trailing slightly behind the United States in life expectancy (78 years). It would appear that life expectancy has stagnated in the United States, yet all indicators suggest it will continue to rise in China for years to come, perhaps overtaking Japan.

This is interesting because China is one of the most heavily polluted nations on Earth. Emissions from coal power plants, improper sanitation of drinking water, direct discharge of industrial byproducts in to rivers and streams, the notoriously toxic electronics industry and algae blooms are all endemic to the Chinese national experience. One could go on and on, but most people are pretty well aware of how polluted China really is.

Despite all of this pollution, life expectancy is rising. It is rising at a rate faster than it did in comparatively clean advanced countries like the USA. In fact, the last time the United States citizen's lifespan was increasing was back when it was still a fairly polluted country with heavy industries. Although America's pollution was never as bad as that of China's, there was a time, not long ago, when it was prevalent enough to warrant the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.

As we study the chemical composition of pollutants we are beginning to learn that some of them do indeed have beneficial health effects. Many of these are carbon based pollutants like plastics. Xenoestrogens in composite materials do have cardioprotective effects, just like their natural equivalent estradiol -- is this perhaps why heart disease is such a potent killer among men in "clean" Western countries? Asian men are the number one uptakers of these compounds and have comparatively low incidence of heart disease.

Note that the most polluted advanced nation of them all (Japan) has enjoyed the most rapid increase in life expectancy. Japan used to have horribly polluted waters from the mining industries of old and even today is a dump. Mt Fuji, a UNESCO heritage site, is covered in trash; as are all of the beaches and waterways in that country.

Lifeforms which rely on carbon respiration (as opposed to oxygen intake) tend to live longer and are far more numerous on Earth. This is perhaps best demonstrated by trees which rely on carbon dioxide to survive, and have been known to live for thousands of years. Note that trees also excrete xenoestrogens in the form of pitch/sap - phenols and aromatic hydrocarbons. This also helps to increase lifespan by preventing aerobic (oxygen dependent) decomposition.

For years we have associated fresh air and "clean" water with long life and health but societies in the cleanest environments are the shortest lived and least healthy. Oxhgen-avoidant, carbon dependent organisms are the longest living, most numerous lifeforms on Earth. Societies which increase the number of carbon based "pollutants", especially in proportion to population density, live the longest. It should logically follow that the countries with the dirtiest, low-oxygen air and the most polluted water will go on to have the healthiest citizens. We are bearing witness to this in Asia.

[Keith_McClary]

Brilliant! I bet that will go viral on the Conservablogosphere.

[jedrider]

No, they're just not dirt poor any longer and don't have McDonalds available.

[Deputy Barnes]

No, they're just not dirt poor any longer and don't have McDonalds available.

Actually they do have McDonald's but you're right, much of their diet does consist of fish and rice raised in heavily PCB and mercury contaminated waters. They're also very fond of rotten food, another health booster I'll have to make a separate thread on.

[jedrider]

McDonalds may be available in Shanghai, but we're talking rural China. As disgusting as that fish looks, if we had to make a choice between McDonalds or that, which do you suppose we should choose?

[Deputy Barnes]

McDonalds may be available in Shanghai, but we're talking rural China. As disgusting as that fish looks, if we had to make a choice between McDonalds or that, which do you suppose we should choose?

You're saying that you would indeed choose to eat fish loaded with mercury, PCBs, killed by toxic algae and allowed to ferment in fetid water... Over McDonald's?

I'm starting to feel like a Messiah.

[jedrider]

I suppose you're lucky enough to be able to afford WILD fish.

It's becoming a luxury for many of us.

Any ocean fish is contaminated with Mercury and now, Cesium, as well.

[Keith_McClary]

I'm starting to feel like a Messiah.

A brilliant inventor has come up with an unlimited source of clean energy:
LENR, Rossi and the ECAT.

Fortunately this has been suppressed by the polluting FF industry and Liberoid gubmint scientists who want to keep their $billions of grant funds flowing to their delusional "hot fusion" projects.

So we don't have to worry about our lifespans being reduced by eliminating of healthy pollutants.

[Deputy Barnes]

I'm down for this.

I'm starting to feel like a Messiah.

A brilliant inventor has come up with an unlimited source of clean energy:
LENR, Rossi and the ECAT.

Fortunately this has been suppressed by the polluting FF industry and Liberoid gubmint scientists who want to keep their $billions of grant funds flowing to their delusional "hot fusion" projects.

So we don't have to worry about our lifespans being reduced by eliminating of healthy pollutants.

Wow! Thanks for the stock tip, Keith! Where can I invest in ECAT? How about you Deputy? Are you in? Gee I hope so!

[Keith_McClary]

I'm starting to feel like a Messiah.

A brilliant inventor has come up with an unlimited source of clean energy:
LENR, Rossi and the ECAT.

Fortunately this has been suppressed by the polluting FF industry and Liberoid gubmint scientists who want to keep their $billions of grant funds flowing to their delusional "hot fusion" projects.

So we don't have to worry about our lifespans being reduced by eliminating of healthy pollutants.

Wow! Thanks for the stock tip, Keith! Where can I invest in ECAT? How about you Deputy? Are you in? Gee I hope so!

Well, of course, being a "Messiah" he would not invest in something that would impair our health and lifespans by reducing beneficial pollution.

[ralfy]

From what I know, what has increased life expectancy rates is the use of oil and other material resources needed to increase goods and services, in turn needed for health care and food production.

Pollution increases the cost of health care. At the same time, the environmental damage that has taken place involves a global population that has only a small middle class. That small middle class needs more consumers to ensure higher sales and returns on investment.

[Shaved Monkey]

Im waiting for the thread about prisoners having longer life expectancy than if they weren't imprisoned.
So we should build more prisons and encourage people to commit more crimes to get in and live longer.

[Cid_Yama]

I'm starting to feel like a Messiah Moron.

Fixed that for you.

I just had 5 siblings/step-siblings who were around 15 years younger than me, die within the last 2 years from cancer. They were all in their 50s. No doubt caused by the fallout (pollution) from the atmospheric nuclear tests that were taking place when they were born and during their early childhood.

You think you are just having fun being a troll, but there are real people out here that have suffered real losses.

You are an asshole and a troll and I can't quite understand why they have not banned you yet, since you have not added anything to the discussion here but have spent enormous amounts of time disrupting the threads.

I'm 71. Both my parents are still alive, my dad in his 90s, my mom in her late 80s. Do you REALLY think them losing children who were only in their 50s to cancer indicates an increased longevity? You are a Fucking Asshole.

[dolanbaker]

Im waiting for the thread about prisoners having longer life expectancy than if they weren't imprisoned.
So we should build more prisons and encourage people to commit more crimes to get in and live longer.

There is an element of truth in that, believe it or not!
A significant percentage of the prison population is made up of drugs gang members, the prisons often have members of all the main gangs segregated in different wings of the gaol so that they cant get at each other. Outside they frequently murder each other.

Plus the fact that they generally don't have access to the drugs that were harming their health on the outside.

So for some, they will survive longer while they're banged up!

[Shaved Monkey]

Came across that fact a few days back watching a doco on US prisons on TV.
Inside looked pretty bad but outside must be worse.

[yellowcanoe]

I just had 5 siblings/step-siblings who were around 15 years younger than me, die within the last 2 years from cancer. They were all in their 50s. No doubt caused by the fallout (pollution) from the atmospheric nuclear tests that were taking place when they were born and during their early childhood.

Cancer rates were on the rise long before nuclear weapons were developed. There are many changes over the last 100 or more years that have contributed to a higher cancer rate -- for example changes in our diet and the introduction of hundreds of thousands of man made chemicals into the environment.

[KingM]

It's quite an accomplishment when people on Peak Oil unite to agree that you've gone of the reservation.

[Keith_McClary]

It's quite an accomplishment when people on Peak Oil unite to agree that you've gone of the reservation.

Hey it was my suggestion:

And what about the positive health benefits of mold, microbes and chemicals - why do you want to filter those out?

You know what, you make an excellent point and I'm going to have to make a thread about that later this afternoon.

why-it-s-time-to-put-lead-back-in-gasoline-and-tapwater-t70403.html#p1214354
I'm looking forward to the mold chapter.

BTW, Dr. Deppity, have you anything to say about Peak Oil?

[Keith_McClary]

You guys seem to be taking this guy seriously. He is just making shit up:

the most polluted advanced nation of them all (Japan) ... Japan used to have horribly polluted waters from the mining industries of old and even today is a dump.