Valuing morbidity effects of wildfire smoke exposure from the 2007 Southern California wildfires

Published Date
December 2016, Vol.25:29–54, doi:10.1016/j.jfe.2016.07.002

Author 

• Ikuho Kochi ^a,c,,
• Patricia A. Champ ^b
• John B. Loomis ^c
• Geoffrey H. Donovan ^d

• aUniversidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico
• bUS Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, CO, United States
• cDepartment of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States
• dUS Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, OR, United States

Received 10 February 2016. Accepted 12 July 2016. Available online 16 September 2016. 

Abstract

This study estimated the economic costs associated with morbidity from the wildfires that occurred in 2007 in southern California. We used the excess number of hospital admissions and emergency department visits to quantify the morbidity effects and used medical costs to estimate the economic impact. With data from 187 hospital facilities and 140 emergency departments located in five counties in southern California, we found evidence of significant acute adverse health reactions to wildfire-smoke exposure. Specifically, we found approximately 80 excess respiratory-related hospital admissions, 26 excess acute cardiovascular-related hospital admissions, nearly 760 excess respiratory-related emergency department visits, and 38 excess acute cardiovascular-related emergency department visits. We estimated that the associated medical costs were over $3.4 million. Since these cost estimates do not consider costs related to other adverse health effects, such as mortality, symptoms that were not severe enough to warrant going to the emergency room or hospital, or the costs of avoiding exposure to wildfire smoke, our estimates do not reflect the full health-related costs of wildfire smoke exposure.

JEL classification

I18

Q51

Q53

Keywords

Cost of illness

Air quality

Forest fire

Cardiorespiratory illness

Social cost

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• ☆
  The study is approved by the Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects of the state of California, as well as the Institutional Review Board of Colorado State University.

• ⁎ 
  Corresponding author at: Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico.

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