Human lifespan may not have peaked after all: study

Based on data from more than 3,800 centenarians in Italy, researchers found the risk of death slows, and even plateaus, above age 105. [File, AFP]

Has the maximum lifespan for a human already been reached? Maybe not, said a study of Italian centenarians published Thursday that found that human longevity is slowly increasing.

Scientists have long debated whether or not the ultimate lifespan in people has been attained. A 2016 study in the journal Nature argued that it has, in 1997, when Frenchwoman Jeanne Calmant died at the record-breaking age of 122.