Health Benefits of Air Pollution Control

As discussed in previous chapters, the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) has a serious air pollution problem. Searching for ways to improve air quality, the city government faces some very difficult decisions. How much improvement is feasible? Which pollutants and sources should be targeted? What strategies should the government choose? Most of these approaches will require more expenditure or impose restrictions on individuals or firms; each strategy will reduce different combinations of pollutants from different emission sources. Because the primary rationale for improved air quality is improved public health, it makes sense to try to quantify the health benefits of various air pollution control policies. The results can help policy makers allocate limited resources to the most significant problems. This chapter has three goals: to develop rough estimates of the health benefits of air pollution control in the MCMA, to determine which pollutants are likely to contribute most to these benefits, and to determine where further research may be helpful in providing more precise benefit estimates.