Davies 2005 - "Economic Costs of Diseases and Disabilities Attributable to Environmental Contaminants in Washington State"

Davies, Kate; Hauge, Dietrich.
"Economic Costs of Diseases and Disabilities Attributable to Environmental Contaminants in Washington State"
Collaborative for Health and Environment-Washington Research and Information Working Group
July 2005
On the Web
Relevance: low

The authors estimated the health costs attributable to environmental contaminants in Washington (for selected diseases) by applying national and other state studies to Washington's population. They use national estimates of the Environmentally Attributable Fraction Range (EAFR) of diseases due to contaminants, disease and population rates for Washington, and disease cost estimates. They conclude that the total cost is $1.8 billion (2004$) for children and $2.7 billion for adults and children.

Unfortunately, this study does not really estimate the costs for Washington, but rather Washington's likely share of national costs because the study uses national attribution rates rather than WA specific ones.  For example, it may be that a higher or lower fraction of asthma in WA is due to environmental contaminants.

The estimates for asthma and cardiovascular diease (attributable to particulate matter), are both directly relevant to air quality.  Some of the cancer is likely due to air toxics, but there's no way to determine how much from this study.

Costs for adult and childhood diseases (in 2004$ million)

Disease	EAFR	Direct Costs	Indirect Costs	Best Estimate (2004$)
Asthma	10-35%	$75.5	$52.3	$127.8
Cardiovascular Disease	5-10%	$336-$365	$228	$564-$593
Cancer	2-10%	$74.4	$129	$203.5
Lead Exposure	100%	--	$1500	$1500
Birth Defects	2.5-5%	--	--	$4.2-$5.5
Neurobehavioral Disorders	5-20%	--	--	$72.4-$305.6
Total Adult + Child		782.1	$1,953	$2,734