Poverty and the stress of living with constant worry gets under children's skin and can cause immediate health and safety problems, such as higher rates of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, worse asthma, and higher rates of accidental trauma. But the long-term effects of early exposure to poverty and its associated stressors partly explain the increases in cardiovascular disease, diabetes, drug addiction, and cancer rates in adults who grew up in poverty and early stress. These help contribute to the 20-year life expectancy difference between those born and living in Fairhill vs. those born in Society Hill, just 2½ miles away though worlds apart.