TY  - JOUR
AU  - Agarwal,Nikhil
AU  - Banternghansa,Chanont
AU  - Bui,Linda
TI  - Toxic Exposure in America:  Estimating Fetal and Infant Health Outcomes
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14977
PY  - 2009
Y2  - May 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14977
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14977.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Nikhil Agarwal
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Littauer Center
1805 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617-312-3255
E-Mail: agarwal3@fas.harvard.edu

Chanont Banternghansa
Federal Reserve Bank, St. Loius
411 Locust Street
St. Louis, MO 63102
E-Mail: c.banternghansa@gmail.com

Linda Bui
Dept. of Economics
Brandeis University
Mail Stop 021
P.O. Box 9110
Waltham, MA 02454
Tel: 781-736-4848
E-Mail: ltbui@brandeis.edu
M3  - presented at "SI 2008 Environmental & Energy Economics Workshop", July 21-22, 2008
AB  - We examine the effect of exposure to toxic releases that are tracked by the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) on county-level infant and fetal mortality rates in the United States between 1989-2002. We find significant adverse effects of TRI concentrations on infant mortality rates, but not on fetal mortality rates. In particular, we estimate that the average county-level decrease in aggregate TRI concentrations saved in excess of 25,000 infant lives from 1989-2002. Using a value of life of $1.8M - $8.7M, the savings in lives would be valued at $45B - $217.5B. We also find that the effect of toxic exposure on health outcomes varies across pollution media: air pollution has a larger impact on health outcomes than either water or land. And, within air pollution, releases of carcinogens are particularly problematic for infant health outcomes. We do not, however, find any significant effect on health outcomes from exposure to two criteria air pollutants -- PM10 and ozone.
ER  -