Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
The Human Toll Of Rich Countries Relying On Others For Goods
Researchers tally the health cost of international trade for a single year and found that in 2007 alone, about 762,400 people died prematurely as a result of being exposed to pollution that was emitted to make products used somewhere else in the world.
Rich countries like the United States import tons of stuff from China and other less-developed nations. In so doing, we not only send our dollars abroad — we’re also exporting premature deaths that would have occurred here if we had to make those goods ourselves. Indeed, one of the reasons it’s cheaper to produce things elsewhere is that other countries have fewer rules about keeping dangerous pollutants out of the air. So we save money and people in other parts of the world shave years off their lives. (Kaplan, 3/31)
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