Leafy, tree-lined streets aren't just good for property
values; they may also be good for your health, according to a new report. After analyzing two sets of data from the city of Toronto,
researchers report that adding just 10 trees to a single city block could
improve how healthy a person feels as much as if they made an additional
$10,000 a year or if they were seven years younger.
The study in the journal Scientific Reports also found that
residents of neighborhoods with higher tree density are less likely to have
cardio-metabolic conditions like hypertension, obesity and diabetes. And it's not just that the well-to-do who live on tree-lined
streets can afford a healthier lifestyle. The researchers controlled for
demographic and socioeconomic factors and found that living near trees still
had an effect on one's perception of health and overall health.
"These effects are independent of how much money people
make," said Marc Berman, director of the Environmental Neuroscience
Laboratory at the University of Chicago, and the senior author of the paper.
"Wealthy neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods with trees seem to have
better health."
The tree data in the study came from the Toronto city
government, which has cataloged every single tree on public land, including the
species of the tree and its size. The researchers also looked at satellite data
with a half-meter resolution to see how much of the tree canopy in any given
neighborhood came from backyard trees. The health and socioeconomic data came from the Ontario
Health Study and included more than 30,000 residents in Toronto.
Source: LA Times
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