TY - GEN
T1 - Applying cost analyses to drive policy that protects children
T2 - Mercury as a case study
AU - Trasande, Leonardo
AU - Schechter, Clyde
AU - Haynes, Karla A.
AU - Landrigan, Philip J.
PY - 2006/9
Y1 - 2006/9
N2 - Exposure in prenatal life to methylmercury (MeHg) has become the topic of intense debate in the United States after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposal in 2004 to reverse strict controls on emissions of mercury from coal-fired power plants that had been in effect for the preceding 15 years. This proposal failed to incorporate any consideration of the health impacts on children that would result from increased mercury emissions. We assessed the impact on children's health of industrial mercury emissions and found that between 316,588 and 637,233 babies are born with mercury-related losses of cognitive function ranging from 0.2 to 5.13 points. We calculated that decreased economic productivity resulting from diminished intelligence over a lifetime results in an aggregate economic cost in each annual birth cohort of $8.7 billion annually (range: $0.7-$13.9 billion, 2000 dollars). $1.3 billion (range: $51 million-$2.0 billion) of this cost is attributable to mercury emitted from American coal-fired power plants. Downward shifts in intellectual quotient (IQ) are also associated with 1566 (range: 115-2675) excess cases of mental retardation (MR defined as IQ < 70) annually. This number accounts for 3.2% (range: 0.2-5.4%) of MR cases in the United States. If the lifetime excess cost of a case of MR (excluding individual productivity losses) is $1,248,648 in 2000 dollars, then the cost of these excess cases of MR is $2.0 billion annually (range: $143 million-$3.3 billion). Preliminary data suggest that more stringent mercury policy options would prevent thousands of cases of MR and billions of dollars over the next 25 years.
AB - Exposure in prenatal life to methylmercury (MeHg) has become the topic of intense debate in the United States after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposal in 2004 to reverse strict controls on emissions of mercury from coal-fired power plants that had been in effect for the preceding 15 years. This proposal failed to incorporate any consideration of the health impacts on children that would result from increased mercury emissions. We assessed the impact on children's health of industrial mercury emissions and found that between 316,588 and 637,233 babies are born with mercury-related losses of cognitive function ranging from 0.2 to 5.13 points. We calculated that decreased economic productivity resulting from diminished intelligence over a lifetime results in an aggregate economic cost in each annual birth cohort of $8.7 billion annually (range: $0.7-$13.9 billion, 2000 dollars). $1.3 billion (range: $51 million-$2.0 billion) of this cost is attributable to mercury emitted from American coal-fired power plants. Downward shifts in intellectual quotient (IQ) are also associated with 1566 (range: 115-2675) excess cases of mental retardation (MR defined as IQ < 70) annually. This number accounts for 3.2% (range: 0.2-5.4%) of MR cases in the United States. If the lifetime excess cost of a case of MR (excluding individual productivity losses) is $1,248,648 in 2000 dollars, then the cost of these excess cases of MR is $2.0 billion annually (range: $143 million-$3.3 billion). Preliminary data suggest that more stringent mercury policy options would prevent thousands of cases of MR and billions of dollars over the next 25 years.
KW - Cord blood
KW - Electrical generation facilities
KW - Environmentally attributable fraction
KW - Lost economic productivity
KW - Mental retardation
KW - Mercury
KW - Methylmercury
KW - Power plants
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33845606264&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33845606264&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1196/annals.1371.034
DO - 10.1196/annals.1371.034
M3 - Conference contribution
C2 - 17119266
AN - SCOPUS:33845606264
SN - 1573316539
SN - 9781573316538
T3 - Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
SP - 911
EP - 923
BT - Living in a Chemical World
PB - Blackwell Publishing Inc.
ER -