Abstract
The objective of this project is to estimate the health effect benefits expected in the year 2007 with alternative National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQSs) for ozone in five urban cities in the eastern United States. The alternative standards identified were 0.12 ppm for 1 hour allowing 1 exceedance (old standard) and 0.08 ppm for 8 hours allowing 5 exceedances per year (new standard). This project selected cough and pain upon deep inspiration as the health endpoints. For each endpoint, health benefits were estimated by multiplying the total number of days of reduction in symptoms by the willing to pay (WTP) for a day of reduction. The WTP estimates were taken from existing studies using the metaanalysis as well as the contingent valuation method. The following results were obtained: the benefits will be higher in the cities where population estimate is large and the baseline ozone concentration is high; the estimates for health benefits show a large range depending on the combination of estimates for WTP and health improvement; and 8 hour standard will bring about larger benefits than the old standard. These results indicate that improvements in benefit valuation and more research on uncertainties are needed.
