Economic evaluation of environmental epidemiological projects in national industrial complexes.

Abstract

In this economic evaluation of environmental epidemiological monitoring projects, we analyzed the economic feasibility of these projects by determining the social cost and benefit of these projects and conducting a cost/benefit analysis. Here, the social cost was evaluated by converting annual budgets for these research and survey projects into present values. Meanwhile, the societal benefit of these projects was evaluated by using the contingent valuation method to estimate the willingness-to-pay of residents living in or near industrial complexes. In addition, the extent to which these projects reduced negative health effects (i.e., excess disease and premature death) was evaluated through expert surveys, and the analysis was conducted to reflect the unit of economic value, based on the cost of illness and benefit transfer method. The results were then used to calculate the benefit of these projects in terms of the decrease in negative health effects. For residents living near industrial complexes, the benefit/cost ratio was 1.44 in the analysis based on resident surveys and 5.17 in the analysis based on expert surveys. Thus, whichever method was used for the economic analysis, the economic feasibility of these projects was confirmed.