Economic valuation of air pollution health impacts in the Tehran area, Iran

Background: Air pollution in Tehran, capital of Iran is responsible for several diverse negative effects. It has been established that air pollution can affect human health. These health effects include increased hospital admissions due to the exacerbation of cardiac and respiratory diseases, as well as symptoms such as headache, cough, eye irritation, nausea, sputum and even death in the most vulnerable individuals. In evaluating any policy that would reduce air pollution, it is useful to compare the policy's costs to its benefits expressed in monetary units. Methods: Since there is no market available that places value on the benefits of improved air quality, we must undertake non market valuation methods. In this paper we used direct medical cost (DMC), contingent valuation (CV) and value of statistical life (VOSL) approaches and household production model of health. According to this study marginal health damage costs for the following type of pollutants impacts: sulftir dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), particulate matter (PM10) and carbon monoxide (CO) are quantified using exposure response functions(ERF) which relate pollutant concentration to the resulting impact on a receptor(health). ERFs for health impacts are derived from epidemiological studies. Results: Health damage costs has been estimated at 16224 US$ per each unit increase of PM10, 28816 US$ per each unit increase of CO, 1927 US$ per each unit increase of NO2 and 7739 US$ per each unit increase of SO2. Conclusion: Substituting economic incentives for command and control approach to regulating air quality.