the paper linked below by Ulf Gerdtham and Christopher Ruhm gives further evidence that economic downturns may have some degree of protective effect on mortality.
this is interesting to keep in mind as the clouds began to gather on the Irish Economic Boom. while few would actively welcome a downturn in the economy, the evidence from this paper and others by Ruhm is that the extra time available to spend on looking after our health that will result from less frantic economic activity may help improve mortality outcomes in key areas; less car accidents, less flu deaths; less liver cirhossis; etc.,
The authors also conclude that the results lend some support to the idea that calming measures might be employed during economic booms such as greater taxation on air pollutants, greater spend on traffic enforcement proportionate to increases in traffic activity etc., It should also be borne in mind that the authors do not endorse trying to create recessions to improve physical health and they acknowledge that their paper does not try to give a full account of welfare losses and gains across the business cycle.
http://www.uncg.edu/eco/cjruhm/papers/oecd.pdf
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