Saturday, February 12, 2011

Life expectancy on British estate is lower than Haiti or Iraq (it's not the smoking stupid)

Men on the Gurnos estate in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, can expect to live 58.8 years - three years less than people in Haiti and eight years less than those in Iraq. Life expectancy....is 20 years lower than the national UK average - and the same as it was for men in Britain back in the depression era of the 1930s. The grim figures revealed by the local Public Health Board are blamed on poor diet, heavy smoking and a high suicide rate due to unemployment. There is also a "culture of despair" in the former iron and coal town...

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