Air pollution, health and economic benefits—Lessons from 20 years of analysis

This paper reviews and compares two air quality benefit assessments completed for California's South Coast Air Basin in 1989 and 2008. Specifically, we separate the influence of changes in population and air quality from that of newer health concentration–response relationships and changing economic values. The dynamic interaction of key variables, including health and economic, as well as changes in population and air quality, lead to significant changes in results over time. Results show dramatic reductions in exposures to ozone and particulate concentrations between the two time periods, a continually evolving health literature, and in contrast, fairly constant real economic unit values assigned to adverse health outcomes. Such research is important because highly technical analyses of the expected benefits of proposed air quality regulatory programs have become an increasingly important component of many decision-making processes.