Executive Summary
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People develop disease and disabilities from many reasons. Some, like the common cold and malaria, are infectious and spread through viruses and bacteria. Many diseases and disabilities are due to genetics and are passed down from parents. Others are caused by pollutants and chemicals that we are exposed to in our professions, communities, schools, and homes. These diseases are called environmentally attributable diseases, because they are caused by health risks, such as lead, diesel, pesticides and mercury, in our surroundings, or environment. Environmentally attributable diseases are costly and frequently preventable.
Many environmentally attributable diseases place financial and social burdens on the citizens of Oregon. These include asthma, cancer, cardiovascular disease, birth defects, lead poisoning and neurobehavioral problems. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a number of studies suggest link the environment with disease and disability. For example, there is a strong correlation between air pollutants and asthma and between exposure to certain chemicals, such as benzene and pesticides, and the development of cancer (U.S. EPA, 2003). Another well established finding is the dangerous effect of lead exposure on children’s neurological development including learning difficulties, lower IQ, and impaired cognition. Exposures to mercury, air pollution, pesticides, and organic solvents have been linked to a wide range of birth defects, including heart defects, spina bifida, and cleft lip and palate.
Due to the many reasons that disease and disabilities develop, many diseases can in part be attributed to environmental exposures while also having non-environmental contributors. This study quantifies the economic cost of the environmentally-attributable components of asthma, cancer, lead exposure, birth defects, and neurobehavioral disorders in Oregon. Estimates of those impacts are presented for both adults and children in those categories that span the age spectrum, and are presented for children only in those diseases and disabilities that primarily affect children. This report does not make estimates on the emotional and personal tolls that these diseases have on Oregonians and their families.
Based on our calculations, the estimate of the total costs of environmentally attributable disease and disability in the state of Oregon for adults and children combined is $1.57 billion annually with a range of $1.25 to 2.00 billion. The estimate of the total costs of environmentally attributable disease in the state of Oregon for children alone is $1.10 billion per year, with a range of $984.40 million to 1.29 billion.
Cost estimates per year for specific diseases are:
- Adult + childhood asthma: $30.0 million
- Childhood asthma: $27.7 million
- Adult cardiovascular disease: $342.5 million
- Adult + childhood cancer: $131.0 million
- Childhood cancer: $9.2 million
- Childhood lead poisoning: $878.0 million
- Birth defects: $2.8 million
- Neurobehavioral disorders: $187.1 million
It is critical that Oregon legislative officials and decision makers implement policies to reduce environmental contributors to these diseases and disabilities. Subsequently, we recommend the following policy items: creation of a lead monitoring program in Oregon; monitoring and reducing pesticide use in Oregon’s rural communities; creating a birth defects registry; establishing a functional bio-monitoring and public health tracking system in Oregon; and adequately funding our state agencies such as Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Human Services.
Ultimately, the environmental threats to the health of Oregonians--and the costs associated with the negative health impacts of these threats--will not be reduced until a common-sense chemical regulatory system is established that ensures only the safest chemicals are used in consumer products, manufacturing, and food production. This comprehensive approach to chemical policy reform helps to ensure that our children’s children do not inherit the health issues created today by certain hazardous chemicals and pollutants.
The primary methodologies used in this study are taken from the national estimates formulated by Landrigan, Schechter, Lipton, Fahs, and Schwartz (2002), and from state specific studies conducted by Massey and Ackerman (2003) in Massachusetts, by Davies and Hauge (2005) in Washington state, and by Schuler, Nordbye, Yamin, and Ziebold (2006) in Minnesota. We use Oregon data on rates of disease and costs whenever those data were available. In other cases, our cost estimates were extrapolated from national data.