Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
16
Final thoughts for students at the twenty-fifth annual Young America's Foundation
National Conservative Student Conference. See
http://www.youtube.com/
17
The relationships between exposure and health impacts are estimated on the basis
of epidemiological studies, which show a reduction of quality and duration of life. The
concept of “value of life years lost” is used to assess the external costs of increased
mortality and is expressed as money per ton of carbon or CO
2
released or per kilowatt-hour
produced. A number of studies have provided values of US$17-350 per tonne of CO
2
. As
a result of the many possible approaches to quantifying damage, the range of the estimated
social costs of carbon cover three orders of magnitude. Many of the studies published on
the social costs of carbon have been criticized for this reason. However, a value of about
US$17 per ton of CO
2
released into the atmosphere can be given as a benchmark lower
limit.Forotherhazardouschemicals,thefiguresareUS$4,000-10,000pertonneofsulphur
dioxide, US$2,000-10,000 per tonne of nitrous oxides, and US$10,000-30,000 per tonne
of particulates PM 2.5 (Fischedick et al.
2011
). All U.S. dollar figures are based on the
2005 value.
18
A recent EPA (United States) analysis claims that the Acid Rain Program, by reducing
sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions, will cut premature human deaths due to fine
particle pollution by between 20,000 and 50,000 per year, and between 430 and 2,000
premature deaths attributable to ground-level ozone (smog). The Nitrogen Oxides Budget
Trading Program saved an estimated 580 to 1,800 American lives in 2008. The Acid Rain
Program has reduced sulphur dioxide emissions in the United States from 17.3 million tons
in 1980 to about 7.6 million tons in 2008. Emissions of nitrogen oxides decreased by 43
per cent between 2003 and 2008. See
http://www.epa.gov/captrade/
.
