A shorter life

The AMA has just published a study comparing the life span of Americans with that of other advanced countries. The study concluded that we die at a younger age, about two years younger. The reason seems to be our use of guns, drugs and cars. More than 100,000 Americans die from these causes every year. For each of the three categories, the death rate is far higher in America than in other wealthy countries.

Other countries are stricter with drunk driving; the blood alcohol limit for driving is lower than the U.S. standard of .08 percent. Plus, infrastructure changes such as roundabouts or dividers widely used outside the U.S. prevent head-on crashes and make collisions less lethal.

The report doesn't really get into the question of gun control but advocates better safety habits relatives to storing guns.

Drug deaths may be affected by looser U.S. practices in prescribing opioids; our prescriptions per capita of opioid painkillers exceeded the equivalent of 700 milligrams of morphine in 2013. The figure for the U.K. was 241 mg. In Japan, it was 26 mg.