Health Outcomes

• Mortality, Respiratory outcomes, Birth outcomes

Health Outcome List:

• Mortality (post-neonatal mortality)
• respiratory outcomes (asthma, upper respiratory symptoms, lower respiratory symptoms, shortness of breath, chest tightness, wheeze, acute bronchitis)
• birth outcomes (low birth weight, birth defects (ventricular septal defect))

Environmental Agents

List of Environmental Agents:

• Air Pollutants (ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5))

Source of Environmental Agents:

• Not available

Economic Evaluation / Methods and Source

Type:

• Cost-benefit analysis (CBA)

Cost Measures:

• Hospital admissions and emergency department visits

Potential Cost Measures:

• Pain and suffering
• lost leisure time

Benefits Measures:

• Reduced cases of post-neonatal mortality
• reduced number of asthma hospitalizations, emergency department visits
• avoided school absences
• reduced number of low birth weight infants

Potential Benefits Measures:

• Benefits of reduced birth defects (e.g., cardiac defects)

Location:

• Not available

Models Used:

• Fast Environmental Regulatory Evaluation Tool (FERET)

Models References:

• http://www.rff.org/rff/Documents/RFF-Bk-improving-reg-ch19.pdf

Methods Used:

• The authors utilized a meta-analysis approach to assess child-specific health impacts derived from the US Clean Air Act (CAA). The authors — 1) surveyed the peer-reviewed air pollution literature for studies focused exclusively on children or presenting results for children ≤ 18 years of age in the US; 2) included 23 original studies examining the association between a considered health effect and an air pollutant; 3) used estimated expected average changes in annual air pollutant concentrations for the entire US on a national level through 2010 based on a previous analysis of the US EPA 1990 - 2010 study (Farrow et al. 2001) to allow comparability with previous studies; 4) estimated a projected 2010 US population ≤ 18 years old; and 5) analyzed health impacts using regression coefficients from different studies of the same health outcome that were combined to form a regression coefficient specific to each end point and pollutant.

Sources Used:

• International Classification of Diseases (US DHHS 1991); US Census Bureau (2002); additional sources cited in publication

Economic Citation / Fundings

Citation:

• Wong EY, Gohlke J, Griffith WC, Farrow S, and Faustman EM. Assessing the health benefits of air pollution reduction for children. Environmental Health Perspectives. 2004. 112; 2.
• Pubmed
• DOI

NIEHS Funding:

• 1P01ES09601

Other Funding: Not available