Air quality effects on human health

Abstract

An integrated model system based on the impact-pathway chain, EVA (Economic Valuation of Air pollution), has been developed, to assess the health-related economic externalities of air pollution resulting from specific emission sources or sectors. In this study, we apply the EVA system to Europe, and perform a detailed assessment of past, present, and future health-cost externalities of the total air pollution levels in Europe, represented by the years 2000, 2007, 2011, and 2020. Furthermore we perform a detailed analysis of health-related external costs from the ten major emission sectors and their relative contributions. The paper contains a short description of the EVA system and the results from the assessment of the main contributors. The overall conclusion from the analysis of the ten major emission sectors in Europe is that the main contributors to health-related external costs are major power production, agriculture, road traffic, and non-industrial domestic combustion, including wood combustion. We conclude that when regulating the emissions of ammonia from the agricultural sector, both the impacts on nature and on human health should be taken into account. This study confirms that air pollution constitutes a serious problem to human health and that the related external costs are considerable.