The Effect of Air Pollution on Human Health in China: A Macro Evaluation

Abstract

In China, the effect of air pollution on human health has been widely concerned and the acknowledge of health effects of air pollution has become the important basis of making related environmental control policies. This paper brought air pollution factors into health production function model and utilized related statistical data to evaluate the effect of air pollution on human health in China. The result showed that, from 2001 to 2007, with each 1% rising of air pollution degree in China, the human mortality will be increased by nearly 0.015%. While from the variation of effects of air pollution on human health before and after 2004, we found that the influencing elasticity of air pollution on human mortality after 2004 was increased by 23% than that before 2004. Therefore, in order to improve the human health condition, China must strictly control air pollution and expedite the pollution treatment.