Newsgathering Assigment

This is a practice article written for my Newsgathering class. Please enjoy.


Lead/Focus: Right-handed people live nine years longer than left-handed people

Articles: According to a study in today's New England Journal of Medicine, right-handed people live an average of nine years longer than left-handed people. Professor Diane Halpern of California State University, who led the study, called the results "striking in their magnitude."

Halpern and her colleague Stanly Coren, of the University of British Columbia, examined nearly a thousand death certificates from two southern California counties. They compared the manner of death with the individual's handedness, as reported by the deceased's family or friends.

They also broke the figures down by gender. Right-handed lived to an average of 78, six years longer than left-handed women. For men, the difference is even greater: right-handed men live to an average age of 73, compared to left-handed men's 62.

One reason for this sharp disparity may be that left-handed individuals, who make up only about 10 percent of the population, live in an world of right-handed gadgets and machines.

“Almost all engineering is geared to the right and right foot," Halpern said. "There are many more car and other accidents among left-handers because of their environment." Many indeed. According to the study, lefties are four times as likely to die an auto accident as righties. As for those "other" accidents? Lefties are six times as likely to die from them.

Halpern, herself right-handed, urges caution in interpreting the data however. The figures may look bleak, but she assures us, "There are many, many old left-handed people."

(A table or graph showing the life expectancy for right- and left-handed men, women and total populations would help illustrate the story.)