Breathe a little easier: American Lung Association study backs smart growth

Walkable Neighborhood, originally uploaded by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com.

Like many Americans, I grew up knowing only one type of community design — drivable suburbia. In my community, exercise wasn’t something that happened naturally over the course of the day. It required carving out designated time slots from a crowded schedule.

Frankly, that didn’t happen as often as it should.

Since that time, I’ve learned that cultivating a more active lifestyle doesn’t have to mean finding a 25th hour in the day. Moving to a walkable, mixed-use, smart growth community quite literally changed my life — with, as it turns out, more significant health benefits than I’d initially realized.

For example, in a new study, the American Lung Association in California has thrown its support behind that state’s plans for more smart growth communities because of the striking positive health implications.

“If doctors and other health experts designed our cities, they would look quite different than the sprawling communities we see today,” said Sonal R. Patel, M.D., American Lung Association in California Board Member and Director of White Memorial Pediatric Medical Groups Division of Allergy and Immunology in Los Angeles.

“Cities would provide more healthy choices, more opportunities for walking and biking, better access to transit, less congestion, more housing close to workplaces and more parks for kids and families to enjoy.”

The study conservatively estimates that if the state of California realizes Vision California goals to decrease driving and create more walkable, mixed-use communities by 2035, the state will avoid:

• $1.66 billion (yes, with a “b”) in pollution-related heath costs
• 140 premature deaths
• 260 heart attacks
• 215 acute bronchitis incidents
• 95 cases of chronic bronchitis
• 2,370 asthma attacks
• 101,960 other respiratory symptoms
• 205 respiratory ER trips and hospitalizations
• 16,550 lost work days
• 132,190 tons of criteria pollutants

Studies like this are powerful and personal. They encourage us to stop and ask a tough but important question: “Am I a healthier person because of the place I call home?”

While it hasn’t always been the case, these days my work commute serves a dual purpose. It doesn’t just take me from point A to point B. Every round trip to and from work involves 30 minutes on a bike or an hour spent walking. That’s a significant chunk of time that used to be spent sitting in rush hour automobile traffic. On the days when I can’t make it to the gym, there’s a certain comfort in knowing that my commute is filling part of that gap.

I’m fortunate to live in a community where this is an option. If Vision California and similar efforts in California (and other states!) continue, many more people will have the choice of an active commute available to them in the not-so-distant future.

Lungs, hearts, waistlines, and minds will reap the benefits.

Hat-tip to the New Urban Network for bringing to our attention this latest in a long line of public health studies that recommend smarter growth.