Bulk of Americans Living Longer but Blacks Are Not : Health: Their life expectancy is put at 69.2 years, compared to 75.2 for nation. High murder rate cited.

Americans generally are living longer than ever, but the life expectancy of blacks is continuing to shorten alarmingly, the Department of Health and Human Services reported Monday.

In its annual compilation of statistics on the population’s well-being, the department said that life expectancy in the nation as a whole rose to a record 75.2 years in 1990. For blacks, it said, life expectancy fell to 69.2 years, although no figures for previous years were provided.

It confirmed that the rate of infant mortality in the nation dropped sharply last year from 9.7 deaths for every 1,000 live births in 1989 to 9.1 deaths--the lowest rate ever--but that of blacks remained at levels more than twice as high as for whites.

HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan said that the life expectancy of blacks is on the decline because of the skyrocketing murder rate among young black males and the growing number of AIDS cases.

Monday’s report sought for the first time to estimate the infant mortality and premature-death rates of minority groups besides blacks.

The new figures, which combine statistics recorded between 1983 and 1985, show the infant mortality rate for Japanese-Americans at 6.0 deaths per thousand, that for Chinese-Americans at 7.5 and that for Filipino-Americans at 8.0. All were lower than the rate for whites, which was 9.0. No specific rate was given for blacks.

The report said that infant mortality rates among various Latino groups varied widely--from 8.0 per thousand for Cuban-Americans, 12.3 among Puerto Rican Americans and 8.8 among Mexican-Americans.

The rate for Mexican-Americans was lower than for the white majority. The only group showing a rate approaching the level of blacks was Native Americans, at 13.9.

The report showed also that the likelihood of death by violence or misadventure was much higher among Latinos and Native Americans than among whites. But it said that Asian-Americans had the lowest death rate from almost all causes and in virtually every age bracket.

Department officials cautioned that the data on ethnic groups other than blacks and whites is incomplete and that detailed numerical comparisons are not yet available.

But Sullivan made these points from the data:

--The nation’s highest death rate is that of American Indians 15 to 24 years old. They died from unintentional injuries two to three times more frequently than any other group--largely because of high alcoholism. The suicide rate for Indians also was the highest of any group.

--The leading cause of death for black youths was homicide, which ran seven to eight times the rate for whites and Asian-Americans. The homicide rate for young Latinos and American Indians was three times that of whites.

At a press conference Monday, Sullivan placed the main blame for this on “the resolution of conflicts through violence,” but he sidestepped questions about whether handgun control legislation might be necessary.

Assistant Secretary for Health James O. Mason, who also briefed reporters, described guns more as a “symptom” than a root cause of homicide. “When you take away the guns, you would still have the problem of violence,” he said.

The record high life-expectancy rate of 75.2 years reported for the nation as a whole followed an unexplained slump in 1989 to 74.9 years.

Sullivan said that the figure for blacks showed that the gap in health between blacks, some Latinos and Native Americans on one hand and whites, most Asian-Americans and other Latino groups is continuing to widen.

Sullivan and the Bush Administration have been under fire from minority advocacy groups and congressional Democrats because of an apparent slowdown in recent years in the decline in U.S. infant mortality--a slowdown that was shown to have been reversed in the data for 1990.

When speaking to reporters, Sullivan urged Congress to “replace their opinions with some dollars” and approve funding for programs to increase prenatal care, immunization and the Head Start program.