Limaye Vijay S, Max Wendy, Constible Juanita, Knowlton Kim
Natural Resources Defense Council New York NY USA.
Institute for Health & Aging University of California San Francisco CA USA.
Geohealth. 2019 Sep 17;3(9):245-265. doi: 10.1029/2019GH000202. eCollection 2019 Sep.
Climate change threatens human health, but there remains a lack of evidence on the economic toll of climate-sensitive public health impacts. We characterize human mortality and morbidity costs associated with 10 climate-sensitive case study events spanning 11 US states in 2012: wildfires in Colorado and Washington, ozone air pollution in Nevada, extreme heat in Wisconsin, infectious disease outbreaks of tick-borne Lyme disease in Michigan and mosquito-borne West Nile virus in Texas, extreme weather in Ohio, impacts of Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey and New York, allergenic oak pollen in North Carolina, and harmful algal blooms on the Florida coast. Applying a consistent economic valuation approach to published studies and state estimates, we estimate total health-related costs from 917 deaths, 20,568 hospitalizations, and 17,857 emergency department visits of $10.0 billion in 2018 dollars, with a sensitivity range of $2.7-24.6 billion. Our estimates indicate that the financial burden of deaths, hospitalizations, emergency department visits, and associated medical care is a key dimension of the overall economic impact of climate-sensitive events. We found that mortality costs (i.e., the value of a statistical life) of $8.4 billion exceeded morbidity costs and lost wages ($1.6 billion combined). By better characterizing health damages in economic terms, this work helps to shed light on the burden climate-sensitive events already place on U.S. public health each year. In doing so, we provide a conceptual framework for broader estimation of climate-sensitive health-related costs. The high health-related costs associated with climate-sensitive events highlight the importance of actions to mitigate climate change and adapt to its unavoidable impacts.
气候变化威胁着人类健康，但对于气候敏感型公共卫生影响所造成的经济损失，仍缺乏相关证据。我们对2012年美国11个州发生的10起气候敏感型案例研究事件所导致的人类死亡和发病成本进行了描述：科罗拉多州和华盛顿州的野火、内华达州的臭氧空气污染、威斯康星州的极端高温、密歇根州蜱传莱姆病和得克萨斯州蚊传西尼罗河病毒的传染病爆发、俄亥俄州的极端天气、新泽西州和纽约州桑迪飓风的影响、北卡罗来纳州的致敏橡树花粉，以及佛罗里达海岸的有害藻华。我们采用一致的经济估值方法，对已发表的研究和各州的估计数据进行分析，以2018年美元计算，估计917例死亡、20568例住院和17857次急诊就诊所产生的与健康相关的总成本为100亿美元，敏感范围为27亿至246亿美元。我们的估计表明，死亡、住院、急诊就诊及相关医疗护理的经济负担是气候敏感型事件总体经济影响的一个关键层面。我们发现，84亿美元的死亡成本（即统计生命的价值）超过了发病成本和工资损失（两者合计16亿美元）。通过更好地从经济角度描述健康损害情况，这项工作有助于揭示气候敏感型事件每年给美国公共卫生带来的负担。在此过程中，我们为更广泛地估算与气候敏感型相关的健康成本提供了一个概念框架。与气候敏感型事件相关的高昂健康成本凸显了采取行动缓解气候变化并适应其不可避免影响的重要性。
