Valuing Acute Health Risks of Air Pollution in the Jinchuan Mining Area, China: A Choice Experiment with Perceived Exposure and Hazardousness as Co-Determinants.

Li Li

doi:10.3390/ijerph16224563

Abstract

This paper analyzes the choice of illness-cure combinations to estimate people’s willingness to pay (WTP) for the reduction of acute health risks correlated with air pollution caused by mining and smelting in the Jinchuan mining area, China. To improve explaining the power of choice experiment (CE), a random parameter logit model (RPL) was employed and extended by considering rank ordered choice sets and non-linear effects of health risk perception on choice behaviors. The results of this study indicated that the ordered RPL approach produced better results than the unordered alternative after comparing different modeling techniques. Perceived health risk, illness attributes, and the residents’ external characteristics: income, education, age, family health experience, work environment and proximity to pollution source are important determinants of the Jinchuan people’s choice mode for avoiding acute health risks caused by air pollution. Taking all acute illnesses investigated together, the mean Jinchuan household WTP for reducing acute health risk caused by air pollution is 146.69 RMB (abbreviation of Chinese yuan) per year (US$23.38, 0.31% of average yearly household income). On the basis of our findings, we conclude that virtually Jinchuan residents perceive air pollution as a serious health risk. To assist the residents to take appropriate preventive action, the local government should develop counseling and educational campaigns and institutionalize disclosure of air quality conditions.

Highlights

Outdoor air pollution has become the biggest environmental challenge for Chinese public health [1,2]
This paper analyzed people’s choice of illness-cure combinations to estimate their willingness to pay (WTP) for the reduction of acute health risks correlated with air pollution caused by mining and smelting in the Jinchuan mining area, China
We found that the ordered random parameter logit model (RPL) approach produced better results than the unordered alternative after comparing different modeling techniques, and this is consistent with Abdel-Aty [43] and O’Donnell and Connor [44]

Summary

Introduction

Outdoor air pollution has become the biggest environmental challenge for Chinese public health [1,2]. Chen et al [3] found that the average annual exposure to PM2.5 in the 272 Chinese cities was 56 μg/m3 —much above the World Health Organization air quality guidelines of 10 μg/m3. Each 10 μg/m3 increase in air pollution was respectively associated with a 0.22 percent increase in mortality from all non-accident related causes, a 0.29 percent increase in all respiratory mortality and a. Jinchuan, which is one of the ten cities with the most polluted air in China [4], has the largest nickel resource and output in China and has been called the nickel capital of China.

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion