Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) in the USA are using a novel technique to
calculate an underappreciated
benefit
of environmental regulation:
the economic gains that come from having a healthier population with
less pollution-induced sickness and death.
Initial analyses show significant health-related economic gains stemming
from U.S. air-pollution regulation from 1975 to 2000 -- but also economic
losses caused by the air pollution that remained.
Other analyses predict health-related economic gains from air-pollution
and climate-change policies now being considered by China.
" Even
these first estimates can provide valuable information for Chinese policymakers
as they try to make important policy decisions that will have impacts
around the world for many years to come,"
said Kira Matus
(S.M. 2005), a member of the research team.
Epidemiological studies have shown that specific pollutants cause specific
health problems ranging from cough to congestive heart failure and even
premature death.
"Such adverse health outcomes are not just quality-of-life
issues,"
said
Matus, who received her degree through MIT's Engineering Systems Division.
"They
incur a real cost to the economy, both in the provision of health services
and in the labor and leisure time that's lost every time an individual
becomes ill."
Thus, while regulation that cuts pollution can be costly, it also can
bring economic gains by improving people's health as well as labor productivity
-- gains that must be recognized in cost-benefit analyses.
" In fact,
the biggest economic benefits of an environmental policy are often those
associated with improved human health,"
said John Reilly
of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change
and MIT's
Laboratory for Energy and the Environment.
To calculate those economic benefits, Matus, Reilly, Trent Yang (S.M.
2004) and Sergey Paltsev at the Joint Program turned to the MIT emissions
prediction and policy analysis (EPPA) model.
This type of model is widely used to estimate the cost of reducing emissions,
but has not been widely used to estimate the impacts on the economy of
damage to human health. The research team therefore developed a new method
for incorporating health effects into the model to show those economic
impacts.
After generating an estimate of emissions, the model uses published
health data to calculate the resulting occurrences of specific diseases.
Each time a disease occurs, the effects on the population -- due to lost
work, lost nonwork time and/or increased medicine and hospital costs
-- are reflected in the appropriate economic sector within the model.
And the model keeps track of pollutant exposures, worker status and the
impacts on various age groups over time.
The researchers believe that their new analytical method yields a clearer
picture of the economic gains to be achieved by improving health through
pollution control. They are now working to better represent the cost
of controlling pollution in their analysis. Ultimately, they hope to
be able to assess both the costs and the benefits of pollution control
consistently within a single model.
This research was supported
by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and
a group of corporate
sponsors through the
Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.
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any particular view or activity. Material in this news item
was first released by Massachusetts Institute of Technology
on 9th September 2005. For further information, please
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