Economic perspective: Evaluation of Health Benefits, Burdens and Strategies for Control.

Would a public health approach to environmental equality related to water pollution improve health outcomes in developing countries?

From a Future Nurse’s Perspective

Date

Name

West Coast University

Topic Description

In a journal article specified under environmental effects on public health from an economic perspective, we critically study economic literature, both in the developed and developing world, on the effect of changes in the economy on public health. We concentrate first on the economic methodologies available for public health assessment of environmental changes’ consequences (social expenditures and benefits) (degradation/preservation). We then clarify how these effects’ monetary analyses will strengthen economic policies to establish agent-specific incentives for effective, equitable, and environmentally sustainable public health management. The synthesis of the available quantitative empirical findings goes hand in hand with our explicationADDIN CSL_CITATION {“citationItems”:[{“id”:”ITEM-1″,”itemData”:{“DOI”:”10.3390/ijerph6082160″,”ISSN”:”16604601″,”PMID”:”19742153″,”abstract”:”In this article we critically review the economic literature on the effects of environmental changes on public health, in both the developed and the developing world. We first focus on the economic methodologies that are available for the evaluation of the effects (social costs and benefits) of environmental changes (degradation/preservation) on public health. Then, we explain how the monetary valuations of these effects can feed back in the construction of economic policy for creating agent-specific incentives for more efficient public health management, which is also equitable and environmentally sustainable. Our exposition is accompanied by a synthesis of the available quantitative empirical results. © 2009 by the authors; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International.”,”author”:[{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Remoundou”,”given”:”Kyriaki”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””},{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Koundouri”,”given”:”Phoebe”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””}],”container-title”:”International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health”,”id”:”ITEM-1″,”issue”:”8″,”issued”:{“date-parts”:[[“2009″,”8″]]},”page”:”2160-2178″,”publisher”:”Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)”,”title”:”Environmental effects on public health: An economic perspective”,”type”:”article”,”volume”:”6″},”uris”:[“http://www.mendeley.com/documents/?uuid=1ccd611b-ebc3-3b30-bd7f-0de4d29f54a2″]}],”mendeley”:{“formattedCitation”:”(Remoundou and Koundouri)”,”plainTextFormattedCitation”:”(Remoundou and Koundouri)”,”previouslyFormattedCitation”:”(Remoundou and Koundouri)”},”properties”:{“noteIndex”:0},”schema”:”https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json”}(Remoundou and Koundouri). Climate change and anthropogenic forcing of the atmosphere to threaten the bility and the capacity of the ecosystem to provide resources that could become economic benefits for humans, including health quality and the prevention of deaths. Even as environmental goods and services are socially important, policy-making sometimes ignores them because they’re not traded on markets and are not priced as such. The primary cause of environmental degrades and the consequent health hazards is the lack of appreciation and internalization of ecosystems’ financial value in decision-making.

Problem Statement

Economic Perspective from an International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health states Water/Air pollution is a major environmental risk to health and is estimated to cause approximately two million premature deaths worldwide per year. Air pollution reduction is expected to reduce the global burden of disease from respiratory infections, heart disease, and lung cancer. Studies have attempted to monetize health benefits generated by improved air quality by valuing health damages from air pollution in the developing world. Some forms of pollution, notably inhalable particulate matter and ambient lead, are serious matters for concern since they are associated with severe health damages in monetary termsADDIN CSL_CITATION {“citationItems”:[{“id”:”ITEM-1″,”itemData”:{“ISBN”:”0821361791″,”PMID”:”21250344″,”abstract”:”Environmental pollution has many facets, and the resultant health risks include diseases in almost all organ systems. Thus, a chapter on air and water pollution control links with chapters on, for instance, diarrheal diseases (chapter 19), respiratory diseases in children and adults (chapters 25 and 35), cancers (chapter 29), neurological disorders (chapter 32), and cardiovascular disease (chapter 33), as well as with a number of chapters dealing with health care issues.”,”author”:[{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Kjellstrom”,”given”:”Tord”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””},{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Lodh”,”given”:”Madhumita”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””},{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”McMichael”,”given”:”Tony”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””},{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Ranmuthugala”,”given”:”Geetha”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””},{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Shrestha”,”given”:”Rupendra”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””},{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Kingsland”,”given”:”Sally”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””}],”container-title”:”Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries”,”id”:”ITEM-1″,”issued”:{“date-parts”:[[“2006″]]},”publisher”:”The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank”,”title”:”Air and Water Pollution: Burden and Strategies for Control”,”type”:”book”},”uris”:[“http://www.mendeley.com/documents/?uuid=92292442-f781-3e6f-a4f8-0327cb3dbacc”]}],”mendeley”:{“formattedCitation”:”(Kjellstrom et al.)”,”plainTextFormattedCitation”:”(Kjellstrom et al.)”},”properties”:{“noteIndex”:0},”schema”:”https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json”}(Kjellstrom et al.). Mortality and mobility effects have been studied through contingent valuation. A cost of illness approach is employed by Gupta to estimate the monetary benefits to individuals from health damages avoidance due to air pollution reduction in India. The majority of studies addressed outdoor air pollution, combined revealed and stated preference techniques to estimate monetary benefit gains from improved indoor air quality. The authors conduct a meta-analysis to estimate concentration-response coefficients for different health outcomes. They then assigned an economic value based on existing values from the literature to provide economic grounds for supporting investment in air pollution abatement; a cost-benefit-analysis is often applied.

Findings indicate that there would be some benefit gains for the owners-employers and the society if certain regular filter sets were adopted. Hedonic studies have also been applied to estimate a relationship between housing prices and housing attributes, including health risks associated with air pollution. The value people place on reduced health risks through improved air quality is inferred by their willingness to pay more for houses with better air quality, all else being equal. There is evidence that hedonic price analysis does not capture all of the health costs of air pollution because individuals are not fully informed about their health effects to incorporate them into property valuesADDIN CSL_CITATION {“citationItems”:[{“id”:”ITEM-1″,”itemData”:{“DOI”:”10.1016/j.envint.2006.09.007″,”ISSN”:”18736750″,”PMID”:”17055055″,”abstract”:”In contrast to a majority of reported damage-cost literature being focused on outdoor pollution, this paper describes the development of a protocol that links population exposure data with reported epidemiological concentration-response coefficients. A change in indoor particulate level is expressed as a change in total exposure levels, which is then linked with a corresponding change in ambient particulate concentrations before evaluating the associated health benefits. In this study, the development of protocol is illustrated by using a typical office building environment and daily time activity patterns of office occupants in Hong Kong. Our results indicate that some benefit gains for the owners-employers and the society would be anticipated if certain filter set configurations had been adopted. However, the amount of benefit gains for the owners-employers is shown to be increased with the average salary level of employees and the duration of their stay in offices. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”,”author”:[{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Chau”,”given”:”C. K.”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””},{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Hui”,”given”:”W. K.”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””},{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Tse”,”given”:”M. S.”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””}],”container-title”:”Environment International”,”id”:”ITEM-1″,”issue”:”2″,”issued”:{“date-parts”:[[“2007″]]},”page”:”186-198″,”title”:”Evaluation of health benefits for improving indoor air quality in workplace”,”type”:”article-journal”,”volume”:”33″},”uris”:[“http://www.mendeley.com/documents/?uuid=24e25946-cca0-3f1d-8b69-83722ac707b4″]}],”mendeley”:{“formattedCitation”:”(Chau et al.)”,”plainTextFormattedCitation”:”(Chau et al.)”,”previouslyFormattedCitation”:”(Chau et al.)”},”properties”:{“noteIndex”:0},”schema”:”https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json”}(Chau et al.).

Purpose of the Topic

Environmental impacts are unmarked and thus difficult to measure in quantitative value. Valuation outcomes are essential for creating economic tools to internalize externalities generated by the public existence of environmental capital. Enhancing air quality and ensuring a sufficient supply of healthy drinking water offer important benefits to human health and well-being. Important advantages are often correlated with the efficiency of bathing water, socially justifying the expense of abatement policies. The implementation of financial instruments, the introduction of charging systems, and/or the development of pollution markets can only facilitate sustainable outcomes if set at an optimal social level. Therefore, it is important to evoke the expectations and valuations of the different social groups through valuations. There are very few reports on the public health risks of air pollution in Europe, valuing health benefits from enhancing surface and groundwaterADDIN CSL_CITATION {“citationItems”:[{“id”:”ITEM-1″,”itemData”:{“DOI”:”10.1017/CBO9780511674686″,”ISBN”:”9780511674686″,”abstract”:”Many reproductive and developmental health problems are caused by exposure to chemicals that are widely dispersed in our environment. These problems include infertility, miscarriage, poor pregnancy outcomes, abnormal fetal development, early puberty, endometriosis, and diseases and cancers of reproductive organs. The compelling nature of the collective science has resulted in recognition of a new field of environmental reproductive health. Focusing on exposures to environmental contaminants, particularly during critical periods in development and their potential effects on all aspects of future reproductive life-course, this book provides the first comprehensive source of information bringing together the arguments that are spread out among various scientific disciplines in environmental health, clinical and public health fields. It provides a review of the science in key areas of the relationship between environmental contaminants and reproductive health outcomes, and recommendations on efforts toward prevention in clinical care and public policy.”,”author”:[{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Woodruff”,”given”:”Tracey J.”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””},{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Janssen”,”given”:”Sarah J.”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””},{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Guillette”,”given”:”Louis J.”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””},{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Giudice”,”given”:”Linda C.”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””}],”container-title”:”Environmental Impacts on Reproductive Health and Fertility”,”id”:”ITEM-1″,”issued”:{“date-parts”:[[“2010″]]},”number-of-pages”:”1-250″,”title”:”Environmental impacts on reproductive health and fertility”,”type”:”book”},”uris”:[“http://www.mendeley.com/documents/?uuid=fc89dbd7-be36-3545-a244-71dcdded5615″]}],”mendeley”:{“formattedCitation”:”(Woodruff et al.)”,”plainTextFormattedCitation”:”(Woodruff et al.)”,”previouslyFormattedCitation”:”(Woodruff et al.)”},”properties”:{“noteIndex”:0},”schema”:”https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json”}(Woodruff et al.).

Climate change and anthropogenic forcing endanger environmental stability and the ecosystem’s ability to provide products and services that can be converted into economic benefits for humans, including health quality and death prevention values. While environmental products and services have value to society, they are often ignored in policy-making as they are not traded on markets and, as such, are not priced. The failure to recognize and internalize habitats’ economic importance in decision-making is the primary cause of environmental degradation and consequent health hazards. Given the public nature of environmental resources, market data, if available at all, can lead to misleading decisions as to the importance of protecting resources, resulting in more depletion and degradation of resources. Therefore, economic valuation is of the utmost importance in providing the right economic metrics and signals for the production of successful and sustainable economic policies.

Reference

ADDIN Mendeley Bibliography CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Chau, C. K., et al. “Evaluation of Health Benefits for Improving Indoor Air Quality in Workplace.” Environment International, vol. 33, no. 2, 2007, pp. 186–98, doi:10.1016/j.envint.2006.09.007.

Kjellstrom, Tord, et al. “Air and Water Pollution: Burden and Strategies for Control.” Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries, The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank, 2006, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21250344.

Remoundou, Kyriaki, and Phoebe Koundouri. “Environmental Effects on Public Health: An Economic Perspective.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 6, no. 8, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), Aug. 2009, pp. 2160–78, doi:10.3390/ijerph6082160.

Woodruff, Tracey J., et al. “Environmental Impacts on Reproductive Health and Fertility.” Environmental Impacts on Reproductive Health and Fertility, 2010, doi:10.1017/CBO9780511674686.