An assessment of the Health Benefits of Reducing Air Pollution in Latin America

Luis A. Cifuentes, P. Universidad Católica de Chile, , Santiago, Chil

Alan Krupnick, Resources for the Future, Washington DC , USA .

Raul O’Ryan, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.

Michael Toman, Inter American Development Bank, Washington DC , USA .

Air pollution is a severe problem in many Latin America cities, with estimates that over 100 million people are exposed to air pollution levels exceeding World Health Organization guidelines. Yet, information on air quality and epidemiology remains limited and of uncertain quality in a number of locations, and the social costs of health damages from urban air pollution have not yet received systematic study. This study aims to provide quantitative estimates of air quality, health effects and the health improvements and monetary value of improving air quality in a significant number of Latin American and the Caribbean urban areas. A complete dataset for 38 cities, comprising almost 100 million people was compiled from different sources. Concentration-response functions (involving particulate matter) from 25 studies developed in the region were pooled together and used in the quantification of the health impacts, as well as studies from the US . The endpoints considered included Premature Mortality, Chronic Bronchitis, Hospital Admissions (for Respiratory and Cardiovascular causes), Emergency Room Visits, Medical Visits, Symptoms and Days with restriction in activity. Social values for the effects were derived from few local studies, or transferred from the US . Two scenarios of pollution abatement were analyzed: a) a 10% reduction from current annual averages, and b) an scenario in which each city complies with an annual reference value of 50 µg/m3 of PM10

There is big difference in the estimates based on Latin American or US studies. A 10% reduction in particulate air pollution results in a reduction of premature deaths of 4,800 to 5,100, depending of weather short-term (estimated using Latin-American studies) or long-term exposure effects (estimated using US studies) are considered. For the standard attainment scenario, the figures are 16,000 to 17,000 respectively. The difference of estimates based on Latin American or US studies increases for the other endpoints. For example, for hospital admissions, for both respiratory and cardiovascular causes, the reduction in cases is 2,900 (based on Latin American studies) vs 26,000 (based on US studies). For other endpoints, like Chronic Bronchitis, Work Loss Days, Symptoms and Days with some restriction in activity, only US studies are available, so we could not compare them.