
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 10, 1995                   TAG: 9503100074
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

STUDY SHOWS FATAL EFFECTS OF POLLUTION

The largest study ever conducted on the health effects of airborne particles from traffic and smokestacks has found that people in the nation's most polluted cities are 15 to 17 percent more likely to die prematurely than those in cities with the cleanest air.

This form of pollution is killing citizens even in areas that meet EPA air-quality standards, said study co-author Douglas Dockery of the Harvard School of Public Health, and ``the impact on life and health is more pervasive than previously thought.''

In Washington, D.C., where levels of airborne particles fall in the low middle range for U.S. cities, the average person loses approximately one year of life expectancy compared to the average for such relatively pristine venues as Topeka, Kan., or Madison, Wis. In highly polluted places such as Los Angeles, Dockery said, the toll is much greater.

The nationwide project tracked the health histories of 552,138 adults in 151 metropolitan areas from 1982 through 1989, and compared mortality data in each location with the amount of fine particulate matter - such as soot, smoke and sulfate particles - measured by the Environmental Protection Agency at each site.

by CNB