Greener, longer life: More trees reduce premature deaths in cities

(Reuters News, 20 Nov 2019) City dwellers tend to live longer if they are in leafy neighbourhoods, according to a study that links green areas to lower rates of premature death.

City dwellers tend to live longer if they are in leafy neighbourhoods, according to a study published on Wednesday that linked green areas to lower rates of premature death.

Trees in cities are already credited with cooling and cleaning the air and absorbing planet-warming gases, now researchers at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health have found they also keep death at bay.

"More green space is better for health," said Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, director of the institute's urban planning, environment and health initiative. "People actually live longer if there is more green space around."

The research, which pulled data from nine other studies involving more than eight million people in seven countries from China to Canada, was the largest ever conducted on the subject, the authors said.

Researchers used satellite images to quantify how much vegetation, including trees, grass and shrubs, was within 500 meters (550 yards) of people's homes.

Levels of vegetation were ranked on a scale under a system known as normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI).

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Reuters News, 20 Nov 2019: Greener, longer life: More trees reduce premature deaths in cities