from Tricky Tanya on flickR

Here are three pieces of good news to help us all get a positive spin on health in this new year. ECF’s Health Policy Officer Dr Randy Rzewnicki starts us off in 2015 on a high note. 

1.Global data is out , and the respected medical journal the Lancet  reports that life expectancy has increased by about 6 years.

“Global life expectancy at birth for both sexes increased from 65·3 years in 1990, to 71·5 years in 2013, an average increase of 0·27 years per calendar year. Life expectancy increased over this period by 6·6 years for females and 5·8 years for males.”(p127)

And, that’s not all.

“Increased life expectancy since 1990 was mainly caused by a fall in mortality from lower respiratory  infections and diarrhoeal diseases, cardiovascular and circulatory diseases (CVD)…..” (p127). CVD remains a key cause of death in Europe, so there is plenty of work to do. But there is hope, and in this case, evidence that things can turn around.   

There’s some bad news too, of course, about road injuries and mental health. But for the moment, let’s reflect on the positive side of the picture. 

Global, regional, and national age–sex specific all-cause and cause-specific mortality for 240 causes of death, 1990–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 (links to Full text)  (summary & other links here)

2. Our good friends at POLIS recently published their 2014 Polis position paper: Securing the benefits of active travel in Europe  calls upon European institutions and other European actors to take action, to ensure that the multiple benefits of active travel are made central to all relevant European policies and programmes “A shift to active travel and public transport can yield immediate health and environmental benefits, much greater than those achievable by focusing only on improving air quality and the local environment through greater fuel and vehicle efficiencies.”

Here at ECF we can only agree heartily with the content and recommendations. But anything else would be surprising indeed, as many of the co-authors are from ECF member groups and partners we have been working with for many years.   

3. Event of note - 1st International Conference on Transport & Health, will be held at UCL, London, England, 6-8 July 2015 and it includes a Bicycle Raffle...YES, a REAL bike!

This 3-day conference for policy-makers, practitioners and academics from multiple disciplines involved with transport planning and engineering, public health, urban planning, spatial and architectural design, environmental planning, economics and beyond.

Click the link for Abstract Submissions welcome thru 26/1/15 + More information

About the Author

Randy Rzewnicki has a wealth of experience in the world of Cycling having previously worked with Fietsersbond Brussels (Brussel’s cyclist Union) and a range of other EU funded Projects such as CycleLogistics & Life-Cycle. He is currently co-managing the ProEbike Project, which is pushing for behavioral change in professional freight or transport.

Follow Dr Randy Rzewnicki on Twitter @ECFhealth