Improving Air Quality in Metropolitan Mexico City : An Economic Valuation

The Mexico Air Quality Management Team

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ABATEMENT COSTS;    AIR;    AIR POLLUTANTS;    AIR POLLUTION;    AIR POLLUTION CONTROL;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2785
RP-ID  :  WPS2785

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Mexico City has for years experiencedhigh levels of ozone and particulate air pollution. In1995-99 the entire population of the Mexico Citymetropolitan area was exposed to annual averageconcentrations of fine particulate pollution (particulateswith a diameter of less than 10 micrometers, or PM10)exceeding 50 micrograms per cubic meter, the annual averagestandard in both Mexico and the United States. Two millionpeople were exposed to annual average PM10 levels of morethan 75 micrograms per cubic meter. The daily maximumone-hour ozone standard was exceeded at least 300 days ayear. The Mexico Air Quality Management Team documentspopulation-weighted exposures to ozone and PM10 between 1995and 1999, project exposures in 2010, and computes the valueof four scenarios for 2010: A 10 percent reduction in PM10and ozone. A 20 percent reduction in PM10 and ozone.Achievement of ambient air quality standards across themetropolitan area. A 68 percent reduction in ozone and a 47percent reduction in PM10 across the metropolitan area. Theauthors calculate the health benefits of reducing ozone andPM10 for each scenario using dose-response functions fromthe peer-reviewed literature. They value cases of morbidityand premature mortality avoided using three approaches: Costof illness and forgone earnings only (low estimate). Cost ofillness, forgone earnings, and willingness to pay foravoided morbidity (central case estimate). Cost of illness,forgone earnings, willingness to pay for avoided morbidity,and willingness to pay for avoided mortality (highestimate). The results suggest that the benefits of a 10percent reduction in ozone and PM10 in 2010 are about $760million (in 1999 U.S. dollars) annually in the central case.The benefits of a 20 percent reduction in ozone and PM10 areabout $1.49 billion annually. In each case the benefits ofreducing ozone amount to about 15 percent of the totalbenefits. By estimating the magnitude of the benefits fromair pollution control, the authors provide motivation forexamining specific policies that could achieve the airpollution reductions that they value. They also provide unitvalues for the benefits from reductions in ambient airpollution (for example, per microgram of PM10) that could beused as inputs into a full cost-benefit analysis of airpollution control strategies.