Health benefits valuation of regulatory intervention for air pollution control in thermal power plants in Delhi, India

Type Working Paper - Journal of Environmental Planning and Management
Title Health benefits valuation of regulatory intervention for air pollution control in thermal power plants in Delhi, India
Author(s)
Volume 52
Issue 7
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2009
Page numbers 881-899
URL http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09640560903180933#.VdkOb_ntmko
Abstract
This study estimates minimum marginal health benefits (morbidity reduction only) of air pollution control and total health benefits arising from regulatory intervention regarding the adoption of the World Bank emission guidelines (WBEG) for thermal power plants (TPPs) in Delhi. The Industrial Source Complex-Short-Term Version–3 (ISCST3) model has been used to estimate the contribution to air pollution from TPPs. The household health production function (avertive behaviour) has been used to value health benefits of air pollution control. The study revealed that the ambient air pollution due to TPPs is reduced by between 62.17% to 83.45% by adopting the WBEG. Annual marginal benefit due to reduction in exposure to air pollution by 1 µg m-3 is estimated to be US$0.353 per person. Total annual health benefits for adopting the WBEG for TPPs are estimated at US$235.19 million. This study provides a novel methodology to evaluate health benefits of regulatory intervention.

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