Increase in average human lifespan 'a challenge of gigantic proportions'

SCIENCE WEEK IRELAND:THE AVERAGE human lifespan in the developed world is increasing by about five hours each day, a phenomenon that could have as large an impact on society as climate change.

That's according to gerontologist Prof Tom Kirkwood, who gave a public talk in Dublin last night as part of Science Week Ireland.

"It's a challenge of gigantic proportions. It's up there with climate change and global terrorism, and perhaps will even be more far-reaching in its impact on society," he said.

Prof Kirkwood was speaking to The Irish Timesahead of his talk last night at the Royal Irish Academy, entitled Increasing life expectancy - a crisis in the making or humanity's greatest achievement?.

Science plays an important role in meeting that challenge, explained Prof Kirkwood, who heads the Institute for Ageing and Health at the University of Newcastle.

"Everything we used to think we knew about ageing is turning out to be wrong, and it's really important that we take on board what biomedical science is telling us about the ageing process," he said.

"People have grown up with the idea that we are programmed to age and die because without that we would be in a world overrun with old animals.

"But that understanding of ageing is fundamentally wrong. There is no clock that is ticking away inside our bodies. We are programmed for survival."

Instead, ageing happens as a result of accumulating damage over time, according to Prof Kirkwood, and because our living conditions have generally become kinder in the developed world, average life expectancy has climbed to between 81 and 82 years for females and 77 to 78 years for males.

Those figures are increasing by about two years for each decade that passes, he said.

"That means that life expectancy in Ireland and other developed countries will increase today by five or six hours, and we are accumulating all these hours, but what will they be like when we come to use them? It is a very big challenge for health," Prof Kirkwood said.

Medical research had a strong focus in the developed world on heart disease, stroke and cancer, where age is often the biggest risk factor, he said.

Attitudes to ageing also needed to be addressed as the number of people living into old age increases, Prof Kirkwood said.

It was important to change the organisation of society, including retirement options, to ensure that the "mental capital" of older people was not wasted as a resource.

What's on

TODAY

GM Crops: Sheep in Wolves Clothing? free public lecture, NUI Maynooth, Hume Building, Theatre 2, 7.30pm.

Primary science table quiz, for fifth- and sixth-class pupils, Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Kill Avenue, Dún Laoghaire, 7pm. Free but booking required: contact Margaret Horner on 087-623 5602 or by e-mail, Margaret. horner@iadt.ie

Today and tomorrow, November 12th and 13th, Science Week at Birr Castle, Co Offaly, exhibition, primary level, 10am-4.30pm. Free but booking required: contact Jennifer Pike on 057-912 0336.

TOMORROW

Cabra, Quaternions and Lara Croft, Cabra Library, Navan Road, Dublin, public lecture on William Rowan Hamilton, 6.30pm. Free but prebook on 01-869 1414.

Cool Seas Roadshow, Letterkenny Institute of Technology, Port Road, Letterkenny, primary level presentation, 10am and 11.45am. Free but booking required. Contact Marnie Grier on 074-918 6306.

Bugs: the good, the bad and the ugly! presentation, Castletymon Library, Castletymon shopping centre, Tallaght, Co Dublin, 10am. Free but pre-book on 01-452 4888.