April 3, 2024
Osaka University
Keio University
A research group led by Professor Michio Murakami of the Research Center for Infectious Disease Education and Research at Osaka University, and Project Associate Professor Shuhei Nomura of the Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Medicine, Keio University (concurrently a Project Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research at the time of the paper's publication), has compared the magnitude of the risks of environmental carcinogenic chemicals in Japan and psychological distress using a metric called "loss of happy life expectancy."
Loss of happy life expectancy refers to the average reduction per person in happy life expectancy (the length of remaining life spent in a happy mood). It is calculated by combining both the decrease in happiness and the increase in mortality associated with a risk event, allowing for the comparison of the magnitude of various qualitatively different risk events. This study is the first to calculate the loss of happy life expectancy due to carcinogenic chemicals.
As a result, the loss of happy life expectancy for radon, arsenic, airborne particulate matter (PM2.5) in 2012, PM2.5 in 2020, and psychological distress were calculated to be 0.0064 years, 0.0026 years, 0.011 years, 0.00086 years, and 0.97 years, respectively. The contribution rate of the loss caused by these carcinogenic chemicals to happy life expectancy exceeded 1 in 100,000 in all cases, suggesting that reducing these risks is important for environmental policy.
This study confirmed that by using the loss of happy life expectancy, it is possible to compare qualitatively different risks, such as those from environmental carcinogenic chemicals and psychological distress. These findings can be used as a basis for policy decisions aimed at creating a society where people live long and happy lives.
The results of this research were published in the Dutch scientific journal "Environmental Research" on Friday, March 8, 2024.
For the full press release, please see below.