For once there are some reasonable explanations below for the findings. Another factor may be inadequate food supply in the childhoods of the Hispanics concerned. Restricted calorie intake both lengthens lives and shortens stature!
U.S. Hispanics outlive whites by more than two years and blacks by more than seven, according to the government's first calculation of Hispanic life expectancy.
The startling report released Wednesday is the strongest evidence yet of the "Hispanic paradox" — long life expectancy for a population that has a large share of poor, undereducated members.
A leading theory is that Hispanics who manage to immigrate to the U.S. are among the healthiest from their countries.
A Hispanic born in 2006 could expect to live about 80 years and seven months, the government estimates. Life expectancy for a white is about 78, and for a black, just shy of 73 years.
Until recently, federal researchers didn't calculate life expectancy for Hispanics as a separate group; they were included among the black and white populations. The report is based on death certificates.
By breaking out the longer-living Hispanics, the life expectancies for non-Hispanic whites and blacks both declined slightly, said the report's author, Elizabeth Arias of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
An estimated 40 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population are people born in other countries who immigrated here, and in some cases they arrived after arduous journeys to do taxing manual labor. It takes a fit person to accomplish that, suggesting that the United States is gaining some of the healthiest people born in Mexico and other countries, said Dr. Peter Muennig, an assistant professor at Columbia University's school of public health who has studied life expectancy in different countries.
SOURCE
Canada succumbs to the hysterics
Of course BPA is toxic. So is water if you drink enough of it. As always, the toxicity is in the dose. And with BPA, very few people get more than a few molecules of it at a time
CANADA has become the first country in the world to declare as toxic Bisphenol A, a compound used in many consumer products, despite opposition by the chemical industry. The move comes only two weeks after the European Food Safety Authority said the chemical, commonly referred to as BPA and used in some baby bottles and plastic and canned food packaging, poses no health risks. France and Denmark, as well as Australia and some US states, however, have independently limited its uses.
On Wednesday, the compound was formally listed without fanfare by the Canadian Government as being toxic to both the environment and human health in an official notice. "A scientific assessment of the impact of human and environmental exposure to Bisphenol A has determined that this substance constitutes or may constitute a danger to human health and the environment," said the announcement in the Canada Gazette.
Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said Canada is the first country to take such "bold action." "Canadians can rest assured that we are working hard to monitor and manage Bisphenol A," added Environment Minister Jim Prentice.
BPA is made from petroleum and, according to the Government, Canadians are exposed primarily through food packaging. Canada was also the first to ban its use in baby bottles in October 2008, after tests showed it can affect neural development and behaviour in laboratory animals exposed in the womb or very early in life.
As well, it may be concern for human fertility, as it has been shown to disrupt hormone systems in animals.
Over 130 studies over the past decade have also linked even low levels of BPA to serious health problems, breast cancer, obesity and the early onset of puberty, among other disorders.
The chemical industry has disputed its impact on humans, and it is still widely used in plastic water jugs, medical devices, hockey helmets, mobile phone housings, computers, car bumpers, carbonless papers and other consumer products.
Bisphenol A is also used in the manufacture of epoxy resins, which act as a protective lining on the inside of metal-based food and beverage cans.
Global production of the chemical was estimated at four billion kilograms per year in 2006. Approximately half a million kilograms was imported annually into Canada in products, but this has decreased substantially since 2006, according to an industry survey.
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