Declining Life Expectancy in America

"The main culprits behind the decline appear to be drug overdose, alcohol abuse, suicide and a wide variety of organ system diseases among young and middle-age adults, especially individuals who did not complete high school. In particular, declines were seen among people living in some parts of New England, including Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont; as well as those living in the "Ohio Valley," which includes Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
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Interesting study. I have another concern considering New England’s life expectancy rates. I was involved with the environmental analysis of dredging in New England’s many harbors. New England at one time was highly industrialized long before any environmental regulatory controls. Many of the harbors in New England were severely polluted from the various manufacturing processes occurring without any environmental control.

I had chemical analysis of dredged material sediments. Some harbors in industrialized areas were severely polluted. But there were no sufficient regulatory safeguards back then. I was always concerned about what happens when the sediments in industrial areas are taken out to sea and dumped in disposal areas. Many of these pollution sediment constituents were more likely to be dispersed as these sediments were disturbed and dumped through the water column eventually settling on the bottom.


I’ve been diving in most of these harbors throughout New England and also the sediment disposal areas. (Also outflow heated effluent from nuclear power plants) It was pretty obvious comparing a disposal area to the surrounding environment. Presumably over time these sediments would become habitat for benthic species from the surrounding environment. These bottom dwelling critters will actually overturn the top level of the seabed with their burrowing activity. Which to me meant another opportunity for direct and indirect dispersion of sediment contaminants. Some of these elements become concentrated in sediment dwelling creatures, simply referred to as benthic organisms which include various types of worms, shrimp, and many more all which burrow in the sand or mud and dwell in these sediments. These little benthic organisms are preyed upon by other larger species. Eventually through what is called biomagnification, these contaminants travel up the food chain. These contaminants consisted of heavy metals, pesticides, PCBs and on and on. If they were left in place settled in the various harbors, and as environmental laws came into play, non-polluted sediment accumulation would eventually cover these early industrial contaminants keeping them removed from the bioturbation occurring in the upper layers of the sediment.


But dredging however was likely to disperse these contaminated sediments not only into the water column but out in the coastal ocean in designated disposal areas. Even though I worked with the EPA in coordination efforts the consensus at the time was to be aware of the possibilities of biocontamination and biomagnification through the food chain. But there were actually no environmental regulations or monitoring requirements with sufficient clout to control any of this. But I would suspect that this is where, or has now become a contributing factor to the above-mentioned study results for New England.

I think there are many environmental constituents contributing to environmental health and declining life expectancy. I think it’s a cumulative effect. Consider all the nuclear bomb testing and the several nuclear plant accidents in Japan and Russia. So, everyone probably has some amount of radioactive residue in their body. So, a perfectly healthy person who doesn’t smoke or drink or have a cell phone (Driving accidents) may still have health problems complements of residual radiation dispersed around the world from previous testing and accidents.

Now add to that contaminants at a local level, such as the industrial Northeast it’s likely that some people may have ingested higher concentrations of lead and mercury or other pesticides or PCBs. And now from a cultural perspective the use of drugs is becoming accepted as a norm in our society. Another cultural culprit could be the development of cell phones, and the problems with electric cigarettes, vaping.

While overall efforts from the EPA with various environmental regulations may be helping to reduce environmental contaminants, we are still faced with a legacy of environmental contamination.

So, the study results are not surprising to me. Cumulatively environmental contamination, cultural inputs and lifestyle choices when considered as a whole, along with other factors (cancer rates, stress, overcrowding, etc.) it’s no wonder the study results are not surprising.

That too