Health Outcomes

• Mortality

Health Outcome List:

• Reviewed publications that examined premature mortality

Environmental Agents

List of Environmental Agents:

• Reviewed publications that examined — air pollutants (particulate matter (PM10/coarse and PM2.5/fine), ozone)

Source of Environmental Agents:

• Not available

Economic Evaluation / Methods and Source

Type:

• Cost-benefit analysis (CBA)

Cost Measures:

• Reviewed publications that examined costs related to air quality, including — PM-related premature death/mortality (measured using value of a statistical life (VSL)
• ozone-related minor restrictions in activity days (MRADS)

Potential Cost Measures:

• Costs of asthma-related ER visits
• respiratory hospital admissions
• cardiopulmonary hospital admissions
• cardiovascular outcomes
• work days lost

Benefits Measures:

• Reviewed publications that examined benefits of improving air quality, including — reduced incidence of premature mortality
• reduced/averted number of minor restricted activity days
• improved air quality

Potential Benefits Measures:

• Not available

Location:

• South Coast Air Basin in California, USA

Models Used:

• Regional Human Exposure Model (REHEX)
• linear rollback model

Models References:

• References cited in publication — REHEX model (Lurmann et al., 1989); linear rollback model (Fiore et al., 2002 and Kim et al., 2000)

Methods Used:

• The authors reviewed and compared two large-scale air quality benefit assessments completed for California's South Coast Air Basin for two different periods, 1989 and 2008. To determine which factors explain the differences in the two air quality assessments, the authors — 1) used an integrated approach to calculate reductions in adverse health outcomes by linking the severity of pollutant exposure of the affected population to the resulting health outcomes; and 2) assigned dollar values to each adverse health outcome/endpoint based on value of a statistical life (VSL).

Sources Used:

• Economic assessment of the health benefits from improvements in air quality in the South Coast Air Basin (Hall et al., 1989); The benefits of meeting federal clean air standards in the South Coast and San Joaquin Air Basins (Hall et al., 2008); Cross-sectional mortality studies and air pollution risk assessment (Evans et al., 1984); Air pollution and morbidity revisited: a specification test (Ostro, 1987); Spatial analysis of air pollution and mortality in Los Angeles (Jerrett et al., 2005); Lung cancer, cardiopulmonary mortality: a further analysis of the Los Angeles student nurses data (Pope et al., 2002); Urban air quality and acute respiratory illness (Portney and Mullahy, 1986); additional sources cited in publication

Economic Citation / Fundings

Citation:

• Hall JV, Brajer V, and Lurmann FW. Air pollution, health and economic benefits - lessons from 20 years of analysis. Ecological Economics. 2010. 69; 12.
• DOI

NIEHS Funding:

• Not available

Other Funding: Not available