If this were so it would seem to me that the average life expectancy in the U.S. would be plummeting. Since it’s really high and as far as I know, increasing, I don’t think this is true.
I know we are lower than SOME industrialized nations, but, sadly, taking the African American out of the equation and we are quite high.
I am not sure why the AA pop has such a lower life expectancy (poverty? crime? some genetic or cultural problem, like, lack of adherence to health care regimen? I don’t know).
Anyway, this chemical is obviously not making us all drop dead.
Part of that is playing with numbers.
In Japan where they have all those so very old people it is not uncommon to find out that the person has not been seen by the family for years and is apparently living on air.
They keep getting their pension checks, the government gets bragging rights and everybody is happy.
They also play with numbers at the other end. If a baby in the US is born and draws a single breath that is a live birth and a certificate of live birth is issued along with a death certificate when they die in the next moment.
In other countries they say since the child is not expected to live it is not a live birth so the baby's death is not counted.
You can do all sorts of things with numbers if you want, you just have to adjust your parameters.