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Global Health Impacts and Costs Due to Mercury Emissions

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  • Joseph V. Spadaro
  • Ari Rabl

Abstract

Since much of the emission is in the form of metallic Hg whose atmospheric residence time is long enough to cause nearly uniform mixing in the hemisphere, much of the impact is global. This article presents a first estimate of global average neurotoxic impacts and costs by defining a comprehensive transfer factor for ingestion of methyl‐Hg as ratio of global average dose rate and global emission rate. For the dose‐response function (DRF) we use recent estimates of IQ decrement as function of Hg concentration in blood, as well as correlations between blood concentration and Hg ingestion. The cost of an IQ point is taken as $18,000 in the United States and applied in other countries in proportion to per capita GDP, adjusted for purchase power parity. The mean estimate of the global average of the marginal damage cost per emitted kg of Hg is about $1,500/kg, if one assumes a dose threshold of 6.7 μg/day of methyl‐Hg per person, and $3,400/kg without threshold. The average global lifetime impact and cost per person at current emission levels are 0.02 IQ points lost and $78 with and 0.087 IQ points and $344 without threshold. These results are global averages; for any particular source and emission site the impacts can be quite different. An assessment of the overall uncertainties indicates that the damage cost could be a factor 4 smaller or larger than the median estimate (the uncertainty distribution is approximately log normal and the ratio median/mean is approximately 0.4).

Suggested Citation

  • Joseph V. Spadaro & Ari Rabl, 2008. "Global Health Impacts and Costs Due to Mercury Emissions," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(3), pages 603-613, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:riskan:v:28:y:2008:i:3:p:603-613
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.2008.01041.x
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    1. Joseph V. Spadaro & Ari Rabl, 2004. "Pathway Analysis for Population‐Total Health Impacts of Toxic Metal Emissions," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(5), pages 1121-1141, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Evan K. Paleologos & Mohamed Elhakeem & Mohamed El Amrousi, 2018. "Bayesian Analysis of Air Emission Violations from Waste Incineration and Coincineration Plants," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(11), pages 2368-2378, November.
    2. Leonardo Barcellos de Bakker & Pedro Gasparinetti & Júlia Mello de Queiroz & Ana Claudia Santiago de Vasconcellos, 2021. "Economic Impacts on Human Health Resulting from the Use of Mercury in the Illegal Gold Mining in the Brazilian Amazon: A Methodological Assessment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-26, November.
    3. Vincent Nedellec & Ari Rabl, 2016. "Costs of Health Damage from Atmospheric Emissions of Toxic Metals: Part 1—Methods and Results," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(11), pages 2081-2095, November.

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