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Your Environment. Your Health.

The environmental benefits mapping and analysis program - community edition (benmap-ce): a tool to estimate the health and economic benefits of reducing air pollution

Environmental Health Economic Analysis Annotated Bibliography

Details

Research article Cost benefit analysis (CBA)
Authors
Sacks JD, Lloyd JM, Zhu Y, Anderton J, Jang CJ, Hubbell B, Fann N
Journal
Environmental Model Software
Summary
In this paper, authors reviewed the development, capabilities, and uses of BenMAP–CE, and demonstrated its use in a case study by estimating the number and economic value of deaths and illnesses that would have been avoided in 2013 if all air monitors had met an annual PM2.5 standard of 12 µg/m3. BenMAP–CE is a publicly available, PC-based open source software program that can be configured to conduct health impact assessments to inform air quality policies anywhere in the world. For the case study, the authors estimated that 6,200-13,800 PM2.5-related premature deaths would be avoided by meeting an annual PM2.5 standard of 12 μg/m3. They also estimated about 480 fewer cardiovascular hospital admissions, 1.1 million fewer cases of exacerbated asthma, and approximately 600,000 fewer days of work lost. The economic value of reductions in mortality ranged from about $50 to $120 billion (2015$), while reductions in PM2.5-related morbidity were much smaller, ranging from $0.02 to $0.11 billion. The authors noted the importance of having the proper expertise for designing and conducting analyses using BenMAP-CE.
Population
Not available

Health Outcomes

  • Mortality (premature death)
  • Respiratory outcomes (asthma, acute respiratory outcomes)
  • Cardiovascular outcomes (nonfatal heart attacks)

Environmental Agents

List of Environmental Agents:

  • Air pollutants (particulate matter (PM2.5/fine))

Source of Environmental Agents: (Not available)

Economic Evaluation / Methods and Source

Type:

  • Cost benefit analysis (CBA)

Cost Measured:

  • Hospital admissions due to cardiovascular and respiratory effects, emergency department visits due to asthma, work loss days, school absence days, cost of illness and willingness to pay estimates for morbidity endpoints, value of statistical life estimates for mortality effects

Potential Cost Measures: (Not available)

Benefits Measures:

  • Avoided number of PM2.5-related premature deaths, reduced number of hospital admissions due to cardiovascular effects, fewer work days lost, fewer cases of exacerbated asthma, overall costs avoided if PM2.5 concentrations met an annual PM2.5 standard of 12 μg/m3

Potential Benefits: (Not available)

Location:

  • Continental United States

Models Used:

  • Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program-Community Edition (BenMAP-CE) (US EPA)

Methods Used:

  • The authors described the background, development, and use of the Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program - Community Edition (BenMAP–CE) – an open source software platform developed by the United States EPA that is used to estimate the health and economic benefits of reducing air pollution. The authors presented steps of using BenMAP-CE through a case study by estimating the number and economic value of deaths and illnesses that would have been avoided in 2013 if all air monitors had met an annual PM2.5 standard of 12 µg/m3. The authors outlined the following steps as part of the analysis – 1) defined the grid structure to perform the calculation (e.g., political boundaries); 2) specified the air quality data used for the calculations, either preloaded data or researcher-uploaded data; 3) selected health endpoints, baseline rates of death and disease, and population counts; and 4) aggregated, pooled, and valued results of the analyses.

Sources Used:

  • Exposure estimates (Brauer et al., 2012); data preloaded into BenMAP-CE; analysis of PM2.5 using the environmental benefits mapping and analysis program (BenMAP) (Davidson et al., 2007); Technology Transfer Network: Air Quality System (US EPA, 2016); additional sources cited in publication

Economic Evaluation / Methods and Source

Citation:

  • Sacks JD, Lloyd JM, Zhu Y, Anderton J, Jang CJ, Hubbell B, Fann N. 2018. The environmental benefits mapping and analysis program - community edition (benmap-ce): a tool to estimate the health and economic benefits of reducing air pollution. Environmental Model Software.
  • Pubmed
  • DOI: (Not available)

NIEHS Funding: (Not available)

Other Funding:

  • EPA999999/Intramural EPA
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