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A comment on Global pollution kills 9M a year, according to new study. Parent comment

Re:Global pollution kills 9M a year, according to new study by curiousgeorgio on Sunday October 22, 2017 @06:46PM (#15529444)
> how many more people die of heart disease when pollution is present

Exactly. And I'm saying that question is much more difficult to answer than some people probably think. Heart disease is so extremely prevalent, and there are so many variables at play that I find it hard to believe anyone can confidently answer that question definitively, at least so far as to claim that pollution is "responsible for" the deaths of X number of people.

It's especially hard to isolate because the dependent variable (pollution) and the independent variable (number of heart disease-related deaths) have both been increasing, and pollution levels are positively correlated with a lot of other risk factors for heart disease.

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Re:Global pollution kills 9M a year, according to new study by TheSpiceIsLife on Monday October 23, 2017 @12:03AM (#15530632)
> It's especially hard to isolate ...

I guess that, that it is especially hard, is what motivates some people to put in the effort to attempt to quantify these variables.

It's probably impossible to determine with absolute certainty, though it might be possible to determine with some level of confidence.

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