IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v15y2018i4p626-d138663.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Health Impacts and Economic Costs of Air Pollution in the Metropolitan Area of Skopje

Author

Listed:
  • Gerardo Sanchez Martinez

    (The UNEP-DTU Partnership, Department of Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, UN City, Marmorvej 51, 2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
    WHO European Centre for Environment and Health, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, 53113 Bonn, Germany)

  • Joseph V. Spadaro

    (SERC, Hillsborough, NJ 08844, USA)

  • Dimitris Chapizanis

    (Environmental Engineering Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece)

  • Vladimir Kendrovski

    (WHO European Centre for Environment and Health, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, 53113 Bonn, Germany)

  • Mihail Kochubovski

    (Institute of Public Health, 50 Divizija 6, 1000 Skopje, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)

  • Pierpaolo Mudu

    (WHO European Centre for Environment and Health, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, 53113 Bonn, Germany)

Abstract

Background: Urban outdoor air pollution, especially particulate matter, remains a major environmental health problem in Skopje, the capital of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Despite the documented high levels of pollution in the city, the published evidence on its health impacts is as yet scarce. Methods: we obtained, cleaned, and validated Particulate Matter (PM) concentration data from five air quality monitoring stations in the Skopje metropolitan area, applied relevant concentration-response functions, and evaluated health impacts against two theoretical policy scenarios. We then calculated the burden of disease attributable to PM and calculated the societal cost due to attributable mortality. Results: In 2012, long-term exposure to PM 2.5 (49.2 μg/m 3 ) caused an estimated 1199 premature deaths (CI95% 821–1519). The social cost of the predicted premature mortality in 2012 due to air pollution was estimated at between 570 and 1470 million euros. Moreover, PM 2.5 was also estimated to be responsible for 547 hospital admissions (CI95% 104–977) from cardiovascular diseases, and 937 admissions (CI95% 937–1869) for respiratory disease that year. Reducing PM 2.5 levels to the EU limit (25 μg/m 3 ) could have averted an estimated 45% of PM-attributable mortality, while achieving the WHO Air Quality Guidelines (10 μg/m 3 ) could have averted an estimated 77% of PM-attributable mortality. Both scenarios would also attain significant reductions in attributable respiratory and cardiovascular hospital admissions. Conclusions: Besides its health impacts in terms of increased premature mortality and hospitalizations, air pollution entails significant economic costs to the population of Skopje. Reductions in PM 2.5 concentrations could provide substantial health and economic gains to the city.

Suggested Citation

  • Gerardo Sanchez Martinez & Joseph V. Spadaro & Dimitris Chapizanis & Vladimir Kendrovski & Mihail Kochubovski & Pierpaolo Mudu, 2018. "Health Impacts and Economic Costs of Air Pollution in the Metropolitan Area of Skopje," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-11, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:4:p:626-:d:138663
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/4/626/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/4/626/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hammitt James K. & Robinson Lisa A, 2011. "The Income Elasticity of the Value per Statistical Life: Transferring Estimates between High and Low Income Populations," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-29, January.
    2. Olivier Chanel & Stephane Luchini, 2008. "Monetary Values for Air Pollution Risk of Death: A Contingent Valuation Survey," Working Papers halshs-00272776, HAL.
    3. Natasha Donevska, 2017. "Trade-offs in sustainable urban development: the case of Skopje," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 7(1), pages 152-159, March.
    4. Hammitt James K. & Robinson Lisa A, 2011. "The Income Elasticity of the Value per Statistical Life: Transferring Estimates between High and Low Income Populations," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-29, January.
    5. Rabl,Ari & Spadaro,Joseph V. & Holland,Mike, 2014. "How Much Is Clean Air Worth?," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107043138.
    6. Vladimir Kendrovski & Margarita Spasenovska & Bettina Menne, 2014. "The Public Health Impacts of Climate Change in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-14, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nilakshi T. Waidyatillake & Patricia T. Campbell & Don Vicendese & Shyamali C. Dharmage & Ariadna Curto & Mark Stevenson, 2021. "Particulate Matter and Premature Mortality: A Bayesian Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-21, July.
    2. Marcelle Virginia Canto & Mònica Guxens & Anna García-Altés & Maria José López & Marc Marí-Dell’Olmo & Javier García-Pérez & Rebeca Ramis, 2023. "Air Pollution and Birth Outcomes: Health Impact and Economic Value Assessment in Spain," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-14, January.
    3. Xiya Zhang & Haibo Hu, 2019. "Combining Data from Multiple Sources to Evaluate Spatial Variations in the Economic Costs of PM 2.5 -Related Health Conditions in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-17, October.
    4. Yaming Fan & Jingliang Dong & Lin Tian & Kiao Inthavong & Jiyuan Tu, 2020. "Numerical and Experimental Analysis of Inhalation Airflow Dynamics in a Human Pharyngeal Airway," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-14, February.
    5. Nicolas Borchers-Arriagada & Andrew J. Palmer & David M.J.S. Bowman & Grant J. Williamson & Fay H. Johnston, 2020. "Health Impacts of Ambient Biomass Smoke in Tasmania, Australia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-17, May.
    6. Isra Hyka & Artan Hysa & Sokol Dervishi & Marijana Kapovic Solomun & Alban Kuriqi & Dinesh Kumar Vishwakarma & Paul Sestras, 2022. "Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Landscape Transformation in Western Balkans’ Metropolitan Areas," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-23, October.
    7. Agnieszka Jakubowska & Marcin Rabe, 2022. "Air Pollution and Limitations in Health: Identification of Inequalities in the Burdens of the Economies of the “Old” and “New” EU," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-16, August.
    8. Xiao Gong & Jianing Mi & Chunyan Wei & Ruitao Yang, 2019. "Measuring Environmental and Economic Performance of Air Pollution Control for Province-Level Areas in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-19, April.
    9. Mladen Miletić & Edouard Ivanjko & Tomislav Fratrović & Borna Abramović, 2023. "Air Pollution Modeling for Sustainable Urban Mobility with COVID-19 Impact Analysis: Case Study of Skopje," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-21, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Henrik Lindhjem & Ståle Navrud & Nils Axel Braathen & Vincent Biausque, 2011. "Valuing Mortality Risk Reductions from Environmental, Transport, and Health Policies: A Global Meta‐Analysis of Stated Preference Studies," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(9), pages 1381-1407, September.
    2. Lanzi, Elisa & Dellink, Rob & Chateau, Jean, 2018. "The sectoral and regional economic consequences of outdoor air pollution to 2060," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 89-113.
    3. James K. Hammitt, 2020. "Valuing mortality risk in the time of COVID-19," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 129-154, October.
    4. Victoria Y. Fan & Dean T. Jamison & Lawrence H. Summers, 2016. "The Inclusive Cost of Pandemic Influenza Risk," NBER Working Papers 22137, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Frédéric Cherbonnier & Christian Gollier, 2022. "Risk-adjusted Social Discount Rates," Post-Print hal-04012977, HAL.
    6. Henrik Andersson & James Hammitt & Gunnar Lindberg & Kristian Sundström, 2013. "Willingness to Pay and Sensitivity to Time Framing: A Theoretical Analysis and an Application on Car Safety," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 56(3), pages 437-456, November.
    7. Christopher Hansman & Jonas Hjort & Gianmarco León, 2015. "Firms' Response and Unintended Health Consequences of Industrial Regulations," Working Papers 809, Barcelona School of Economics.
    8. Nicholas Z. Muller, 2020. "Long-Run Environmental Accounting in the US Economy," Environmental and Energy Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 158-191.
    9. Herrera-Araujo, Daniel & Rochaix, Lise, 2020. "Does the Value per Statistical Life vary with age or baseline health? Evidence from a compensating wage study in France," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    10. Patrick Carlin & Brian E. Dixon & Kosali I. Simon & Ryan Sullivan & Coady Wing, 2022. "How Undervalued is the Covid-19 Vaccine? Evidence from Discrete Choice Experiments and VSL Benchmarks," NBER Working Papers 30118, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Moritz A. Drupp & Martin C. Hänsel, 2021. "Relative Prices and Climate Policy: How the Scarcity of Nonmarket Goods Drives Policy Evaluation," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 168-201, February.
    12. Detlof von Winterfeldt & R. Scott Farrow & Richard S. John & Jonathan Eyer & Adam Z. Rose & Heather Rosoff, 2020. "Assessing the Benefits and Costs of Homeland Security Research: A Risk‐Informed Methodology with Applications for the U.S. Coast Guard," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(3), pages 450-475, March.
    13. Arthur E. Attema & Han Bleichrodt & Olivier L’Haridon & Patrick Peretti-Watel & Valérie Seror, 2018. "Discounting health and money: New evidence using a more robust method," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 117-140, April.
    14. James K. Hammitt & Peter Morfeld & Jouni T. Tuomisto & Thomas C. Erren, 2020. "Premature Deaths, Statistical Lives, and Years of Life Lost: Identification, Quantification, and Valuation of Mortality Risks," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(4), pages 674-695, April.
    15. Gianmarco León & Edward Miguel, 2017. "Risky Transportation Choices and the Value of a Statistical Life," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 202-228, January.
    16. Fan, Victoria Y & Jamison, Dean T & Summers, Lawrence H, 2018. "Pandemic risk: how large are the expected losses?," Scholarly Articles 35014363, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    17. Hultkrantz, Lars & Svensson, Mikael, 2012. "A Comparison of Benefit Cost and Cost Utility Analysis in Practice: Divergent Policies in Sweden," Working Papers 2012:5, Örebro University, School of Business.
    18. Je-Liang Liou, 2019. "Effect of Income Heterogeneity on Valuation of Mortality Risk in Taiwan: An Application of Unconditional Quantile Regression Method," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-15, May.
    19. Claxton, Karl & Asaria, Miqdad & Chansa, Collins & Jamison, Julian & Lomas, James & Ochalek, Jessica & Paulden, Mike, 2019. "Accounting for timing when assessing health-related policies," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 100038, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Peter Juul Egedesø & Casper Worm Hansen & Peter Sandholt Jensen, 2020. "Preventing the White Death: Tuberculosis Dispensaries," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(629), pages 1288-1316.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:4:p:626-:d:138663. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.