Air pollution is an expensive waste of human health, and clearing the atmosphere could save about as much money as it would cost, a raft of Utah's leaders learned Thursday.
Dr. Kenneth N. Buchi, assistant professor in the department of medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine, detailed the medical costs of air pollution for a "Clean Air Retreat" held in the Olympic Park Hotel. The two-day session was sponsored by Gov. Norm Bangerter, Salt Lake Mayor Palmer DePaulis and the Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce.It drew more than 120 top business executives, officials and leaders, including members of the Governor's Clean Air Commission. Bangerter said the group is working on a set of proposals to meet federal air-quality standards, and that his administration hopes to use them in a package for the 1991 Legislature.
Buchi said a 1981 study was able to link various levels of air pollution to the cost of health damage. It found that particulates cause $10 to $25 per capita damage yearly for each increase in concentration of just one microgram per cubic meter.
For sulfates, the cost was pegged at $75 to $150 for every increase in concentration of one microgram per cubic meter, on a per capita yearly basis.
Applying this to Utah's population, about 1.6 million, Buchi said the cost could be $16 million to $40 million yearly for each incremental increase for particulates, and $120 million to $240 million a year for sulfates.
"Yes, it is going to cost money to clean up our air, but I think it's going to give us pretty much equal savings in health-care costs," Buchi said. Of course, he said, the added benefit beyond actual costs would be in the reduction in human suffering.
Although there is much talk about the cost of dealing with air pollution, he said, "There is another side to that. There are costs to us of not cleaning up air pollution. There are costs of human health and human suffering."
-PM10 is an insidious form of air pollution. It is a particle less than 10 microns in size, which is so tiny that it can get all the way down into the lungs' gas-exchange system, he said.
"They damage the lungs' defenses," and are vehicles for toxins.
-Sulfur dioxide is "probably more toxic than particulates," he said. Nitrogen oxides are in the same category and also contribute to the ozone problem. They can affect the sense of smell.
-Ozone causes destruction of the airway lining cells, which causes infection, coughing, pain and swelling. Carbon monoxide replaces the oxygen in red-blood cells.
-Lead air pollution is much less a problem than it was once, thanks to the switch-over to lead-free fuels. But, Buchi said, it's a unique problem because lead is cumulative - the body doesn't rid itself of it. It can cause brain problems.
Speaking of economic costs alone, he said it is difficult to "assign a monetary price to an adverse health effect." For example, how much is it worth not to have five years stricken from one's life?
Figures cited for cleaning up the air under the present Clean Air Act range from $20 billion to $40 billion. The cost of damaged health from air pollution in America is in that ballpark, he said.
Scientists are realizing that the costs incurred in carrying out the provisions of the Clean Air Act will be returned in terms of avoiding health damage, according to Buchi.