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Hey Nation! – Stephen Colbert spreads the WORD about "Cheating Death" using EPA's particulate matter research!
Cheating Death - Lung Health... Stephen Colbert discusses a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine which found that breathing cleaner air can extend your life span.
In a recent "Cheating Death" segment of Comedy Central's Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert discussed a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine which found that breathing cleaner air can extend your life span. This study was funded in part through a grant to Harvard University under EPA’s Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program. The researchers reported that a reduction of 10 micrograms of pollutant particles per cubic meter of air was associated with an increase of more than five months in average life expectancy. The investigators (C. Arden Pope, III, Ph.D., Majid Ezzati, Ph.D., and Douglas W. Dockery, Sc.D.) used regression models to analyze morbidity and mortality data along with three decades of air monitoring data for particulate matter from 51 metropolitan areas across the US. Colbert demonstrated his approach to reducing particles by adorning a canvas sack for a portion of the segment.
EPA's STAR research program is managed by the National Center for Environmental Research (NCER), part of EPA’s Office of Research and Development. NCER’s mission is to support high-quality research by the nation’s leading scientists that will improve the scientific basis for national environmental decisions. NCER funds leading edge research in the areas of exposure, effects, risk assessment and risk management through competitions for grants, fellowships, and innovative small business research contracts.
The cleaner air findings reported in this EPA STAR research has been carried by many key news sources including:
- NBC Nightly News (1/21, story 10, 2:10, Williams)
- Los Angeles Times (1/22, Maugh)
- Washington Post (1/22, A15) Green column
- New York Times (1/21)
- Vital Signs column AP (1/22, Chang)
- Bloomberg News (1/22, Lopatto)
- USA Today (1/22, Szabo)
- BBC News (1/22)
- HealthDay (1/21, Edelson)
- MedPage Today (1/21, Neale)
- WebMD (1/21, Hendrick)
- MedWire (1/22, Holmes)
- The Scientific American (1/22, Lite) 60-Second Science blog
- CNN (1/22, Harding)
- The Salt Lake Tribune (1/22, Fahys)
For more information on Stephen Colbert:
http://www.colbertnation.com
To view this Cheating Death segment:
Cheating Death - Lung Health
For more information about EPA’s STAR Research Grant Program:
http://www.epa.gov/ncer
For more information about this study:
http://www.epa.gov/ncer/events/news/2009/01_23_09_topstory.html
and
and
Special article from New England Journal of Medicine:
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/360/4/376