THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF QUANTIFIABLE OZONE AND PM10 RELATED HEALTH EFFECTS IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA Hall, Kleinman, Fairley. Jane Hall, Victor Brajer, The Institute for Economic and Environmental Studies, California State University, Fullerton, CA 92634, October 1994
This entry is the executive summary from the Final Report to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District of the extensive costs associated with Particulate Pollution and by implication - wood smoke. The report estimates the cost of PM10 pollution in the Bay Area to be $2 billion. The BAAQMD has ignored this report which they sponsored. Order the entire paper from the BAAQMD.
Cost of not reducing PM2.5 in the San Francisco Bay Area $2.1 Billion and 1,098 deaths,
Health cost of wood burning $1.1 Billion
Cost of 1 fire:$40. ( 20 pounds wood)
(The Economic Value of Quantifiable Ozone and
PM10 Related Health Effects in the San Francisco Bay Area. 10/94)
Ozone Reduction in the San Francisco Bay Area
Cost to reduce ozone $1 billion Health savings $5.3 million
(The Economic Value of Quantifiable Ozone and
PM10 Related Health Effects in the San Francisco Bay Area. 10/94)
Economic Burden of Pneumonia in an Employed Population, Birnbaum HG, Morley M, Greenberg PE, Cifaldi M, Colice GL Arch Intern Med. 2001;161:2725-2731
Objective To estimate the overall economic burden of pneumonia from an employer perspective.
Results Total annual, per capita, employer costs were approximately 5 times higher for patients with pneumonia ($11 544) than among typical beneficiaries in the employer overall population ($2368). The increases in costs were for all components (eg, medical care, prescription drug, disability, and particularly for inpatient services). A small proportion (10%) of pneumonia patients (almost all of whom were hospitalized) accounted for most (59%) of the costs.
Conclusions Patients with pneumonia present an important financial
burden to
employers. These patients use more medical care services, particularly
inpatient
services, than the average beneficiary in the employer overall
population. In addition to direct health care costs related to
medical utilization and the use of prescription drugs, indirect
costs due to disability and absenteeism also contribute to the
high cost of pneumonia to an employer.
Arch Intern Med. 2001;161:2725-2731
An Engineer's Prospective on Heating with Wood and other Solid Fuels by Curt M. Freedman, January 2001
Economics of Burning Wood:Wallace Stegner "Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs, Living and Writing in the West"
Stegner in writing about his father: "He wanted to make a killing and end up on easy street. ... He did one last desperate and damaging thing: he managed to get an option on some land in southern California, and to make his payments and a fastbuck, he hired a crew to cut down all its two-hundred-year-old oaks and sell them off as firewood. Finally, like Clarence King and many another gambler no worse and no better, he died broke and friendless in a fleabag hotel, having in his lifetime done more human and environmental damage than he could have repaired in a second lifetime."
Back to Burning Issues
