Dr. Moench on air pollution and life expectancy for KUTV
UPHE has been saying for 15 years that Utahns are losing about two years of their life expectancy due to air pollution. New research strengthens that claim.
KUTV called us up last week to weigh in on a new air pollution study that found the average person worldwide lost over 2 years of life expectancy due to air pollution. That is even more than the expected loss of life expectancy from first hand cigarette smoke. When they asked us if we knew of a patient they could interview affected by air pollution, we offered up our board president, Dr. Brian Moench, who spent a weekend in the ICU three years ago as a result of a dangerous kind of blood clot that can be triggered by air pollution.
“I’ve had to have discussions with my family whether or not it’s safe or not for me to remain in Utah because of the air pollution,” Dr. Moench said regarding pollution’s effect on the health condition.
Dr. Moench identified inversions, o-zone high volume pollutants, wildfire smoke and dust from the drying Great Salt Lake as pollutants in Utah.
KUTV talked about the practical steps we can take to reduce pollution as well, such as legislation that wasn’t passed last session to make UTA services free. If this legislation comes back up, we will urge you to call your representatives to support it.
“The report states that since the passage of the 1970 Clean Air Act, air pollution has gone down nearly 65%, but despite those gains 93% Americans live in areas with unsafe pollution levels” KUTV reports. All of us, and especially those of us in Utah, should support policies and take practical steps towards reducing air pollution.
Watch the segment and see the practical steps and solutions cited to reduce air pollution here.