Events

People who drop out of high school have a life expectancy that is 6 to 9 years shorter than those who graduate. High school dropouts are more likely to work in occupations with toxic exposures and live in more polluted neighborhoods, and these exposures have been hypothesized to account for some of this difference in life expectancy. Mexico-born immigrants to the US, however, are both significantly more likely to have completed only a few years of schooling and live 5 years longer than native-born non-Hispanic white native-born Americans. We use the National Health Nutrition and Examination Survey to explore differences in laboratory measures of serological toxins to test whether toxic exposures might account for some of the difference in health outcomes by social class and immigration status. The analysis is still in the planning stage, but preliminary data will be presented.