MSNBC reports today that overall U.S. life expectancy fell in 2008 - the first full year of the current job-killing recession. From the article:
Overall life expectancy fell to 77.8 years, down slightly from 77.9 in 2007, the year that the recession began, and below a record high of 78.1 years in 2006. In a country like the U.S., the drop is small but ominous, public health experts said.
Now, correlation doesn’t mean causation, so no one is saying that this drop in life expectancy is a direct result of the crappy economy. Admittedly, those links would be difficult to prove.
The bad news from the new CDC data?
Death rates due to high blood pressure, chronic respiratory disease and suicide all rose in 2008.
But at least there is a bit of good news from 2008:
…fewer people died from workplace injuries.
HAH!
