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A comment on The health benefits of better air.

Re:The health benefits of better air by adamjb on Tuesday April 27, 2021 @11:48PM (#26965343)
How is it possible to separate DALYs lost from high BMI from DALYs lost from low vegetables and/or low physical activity? The author never fully explains the methodology behind the graph.
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Re:The health benefits of better air by Greek0 on Wednesday April 28, 2021 @01:19AM (#26965871)
I don't understand how the author arrives at the conclusion that "[air quality] is often the most effective health intervention, period".

How do you take that away from the plots? If you're in the US my prime take-away would be to keep your BMI in check.

The first graph shows ~2 deaths per 1000 people per year. Surely more than 2 persons/1000/year die in those countries. What are the causes for the other ~10-15 deaths/1000/year?

Given the information in the article, I don't see anything to support the central thesis about air quality. The reasoning for it is so thin that I have no idea whether it's true or not.

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Re:The health benefits of better air by lmm on Wednesday April 28, 2021 @03:31AM (#26966736)
> I don't understand how the author arrives at the conclusion that "[air quality] is often the most effective health intervention, period".

> How do you take that away from the plots? If you're in the US my prime take-away would be to keep your BMI in check.

They mean in terms of cost/benefit. Reducing BMI is notoriously difficult.

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Re:The health benefits of better air by meatmanek on Wednesday April 28, 2021 @01:33AM (#26965964)
Most of the world lives outside the US, so "often" would seem to apply to the potential improvement in DALYs.

BMI reductions are also notoriously difficult, while many of the mitigations listed in the article are low effort and relatively low cost. You could plausibly include this in your comparison of effectiveness.

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