Study highlights high cost of fossil fuel pollution on children's health

News Release 12-Dec-2019
Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health

A new study by researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health is the first to compile the estimated per-case costs of six childhood health conditions linked to air pollution

•••••

The study reports case-specific monetary estimates for preterm birth, low birth weight, asthma, autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and IQ reduction in children--which scientific evidence shows are among the known or likely health consequences of prenatal and early childhood exposure to air pollution, 80 percent of which is attributable to burning of coal, oil, diesel and gas.

•••••

The study cites previously published estimates ranging from $23,573 for childhood asthma not persisting into adulthood to $3,109,096 for a case of autism with a concurrent intellectual disability. The researchers also provide an example of cumulative costs: they calculate a savings of $267 million if the number of pre-term births in the United States attributable to PM2.5 (a measure of particulate matter--one of several harmful air pollutants) were reduced by just 1 percent.

The study authors prioritized monetary estimates that factored in both immediate medical costs and longer-term and broad societal costs. However, they acknowledge that their figures are likely underestimates because they don't adequately capture the long-term health and societal impacts--for example, effects over the full life-course or losses in economic productivity.

•••••