Today’s babies may live to 130

Press, 22 September 1987, Page 25

Today’s babies may live to 130

NZPA-AAP London Some babies born today will survive well into the twenty-second century and may live to be 130, scientists believe.

International biologists and geriatricians meeting in Brtain recently believe that medical advances, safer working conditions, lower pollution, better diets and less smoking and drinking will push life expectancy sharply higher in decades to come.

"People in middle age are still paying the price for what has happened to them in their first 40 years of life,” said Professor Malcolm Johnson, professor of health and social welfare at the Open University. “But as children are bom with the advantages of such lifestyles from birth their life expectancy should rise sharply,” said Professor Johnson, who was chairing the International Association of Gerontology conference in Brighton.

But he warned that the theory was not foolproof. “New environmental

hazards may arise, and some stages of the ageing process may prove hard to alleviate.”

According to the "Guinness Book of Records,” the greatest age attained was 120 years and 237 days by a Japanese man who died last year. The next highest authenticated age is 113.