DOES CRUISING A LOT REDUCE YOUR LIFE SPAN?

There is a plethora of information on how cruising is bad for your health and the environment.  About the latter:

• While cruise liners follow national and international regulations, these laws are inadequate and difficult to police.
• Blackwater sewage disposal is allowed, which means ships can dump raw, untreated into the ocean if they are than 3 miles from shore.
• Same for graywater.
• Food waste, etc.
• That graphic from this source.

• 
  Not only air and water pollution, but noise pollution, which kills marine life, in addition to directly terminating anything in the path of the ship

• 
  Cruising is booming with nearly 34 million passengers expected this year.
• Read this.
• Green cruising is coming, but at a higher expense.
• Just these problems make you want to stop cruising.  But there is more.

About us humans, I asked Google AI if cruising a lot at sea will reduce your life expectancy:

Cruising a lot at sea isn't directly studied for life expectancy, but living near the ocean is linked to longer life due to better air quality, less extreme heat, more physical activity (blue space benefits), and lower stress, while inland urban areas with poor air/water might reduce it; however, factors like pollution, socioeconomic status, and specific ship conditions (pollution, crowding) on cruises could offset some benefits, making a definitive "yes" or "no" hard without more research on frequent cruisers vs. coastal residents. 

In other words, no one has been funded to do this research.  I would think that cruise lines would not want to know this answer, for most likely, the result of this study will only lose customers, for it is indeed true that those who work at sea do have a shorter life span than those who do so on land, according to Google AI.

Yes, studies suggest seafarers often have higher mortality risks and potentially shorter lifespans than land-based workers due to occupational hazards like accidents, stress, isolation, unhealthy lifestyles (smoking/drinking), and limited medical care at sea, though modern improvements are helping, and risks vary by specific role and era. 

In the UK, the government was getting concerned about difficulties the maritime industry had to recruit employees, so a study was completed about this this discrepancy.  As an aside, this article used referenes from The 100 Year Life by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott (Amazon sells a paperback of this 9-year old book for more than a thousand dollars).  Did you know that 50% of babies born in 2007 are predicted to still be alive these number of years?

So how dangerous are maritime jobs? 

No one would dispute the fact that maritime work is dangerous. Conditions on any offshore rig, barge, dredge, and other vessels can be treacherous, even in calm waters. Offshore oil rig workers have a fatality rate that’s seven times the average for the U.S. workforce. Workers in marine terminals and port operations are at risk too, with a fatality rate that’s five times the national average. 

 

But it is the work environment itself that is the cause, for take underwater welding:

The last recorded statistics for the fatality rate for divers, as presented by the CDC, indicated that underwater welders were 40 times more likely to lose their lives on the job than the average U.S. worker. (You can read more here: The Dangers of Underwater Welding).

But even for longshoremen and dockworkers who spend their lives on land:

From 2011 to 2017, these workers lost their lives in workplace accidents at a rate of 15.9 per 100,000 workers—about 5 times the average fatality rate for the U.S. workforce.

For seamen:

According to NIOSH, from 2011 to 2017, the fatality rate for workers in the water transportation industry was nearly 6 times the rate for all U.S. workers. Seamen lost their lives by drowning, work accidents, suicide, cardiovascular conditions, and workplace violence.

Of course, cruise passengers are pampered and cared for, unlike workers.  Yet, I see many cruisers eating and drinking too much, while partaking in too much late night entertainment, all of which can only be bad for your health.  That  would include the both of us.  But then again, it is not length of life, but, rather, depth of life, quoting from Ralph Wado Emerson.

Who is Emerson?  A defining American essayist, poet, philosopher and leader of the Transcendentalist movement.  What is that?  A 19th century American philosophical, literary and social movement emphasizing individualism, self-reliance, intuition and the inherent divinity in nature and each person, challenging rigid traditions and materialism to seek deeper spiritual truths through personal experience and connection with the natural world.  That from Google AI.  Add Henry David Thoreau to the leaders.

Of course, one way to reduce lifespan is to be on a sinking ship.  Have you seen a video of the Titanic?  

Of the 2002 passengers and crew, up to 1600 perished.  This number has never been verified for a number of reasons.  333 bodies were recovered, and the rest remain buried at sea.  There have been higher ship sinking deaths, but these were on ferries and during wartime.  The Titanic was 113 years ago.  Since I was born, no traditional cruise ships have had anything close to that kind of disaster.  Need assurance?  Read this article.

Well, you will decide what is best for yourself. In possibly your final life, is it best to just stay home, watch Netflix, and plain subsist?  I am, though, reaching that final phase where I don't need any more excitement abroad, for I have sufficient memories to just bask in my present, comfortable, secure and at peace.  Yet, only a week after this Diamond Princess cruise ends, we embark on the Ritz-Carlton Luminara to Hong Kong.  Then, in the coming Spring, a USA-Canada adventure in Las Vegas, American Cruise Line trip from Memphis to New Orleans, followed by a Viking cruise from New York City to Toronto, and ending with an exciting train journey to Vancouver via Lake Louis and all those touristy stops along the way.

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