title: An evaluation of air pollution health impacts and costs in São Paulo, Brazil.
abstract: The need to determine cost estimates of the hazardous effects of diseases is important in order to establish the priorities of actions for prevention and health management. The evaluation of air pollution impacts on health, based on expenditures, has been carried out, but there are obvious comparison difficulties among countries, as the health-per-capita investment varies enormously. In order to achieve a standard indicator, we applied the Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY) method to estimate the health burden and cost estimate due to air pollution in São Paulo, Brazil. The basic methodology was the utilization of dose-response curves of epidemiological studies conducted in São Paulo to assess air pollution and its health effects. DALY attributable to air pollution in São Paulo added up to 28,212 years annually. An indirect health cost attributable to air pollution resulted in 3,222,676 US dollars. This estimate refers to the children and the elderly population. These results give a preliminary and underestimated value of the burden of diseases promoted by air pollution.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Experimental Air Pollution, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. miraglia@terra.com.br
authors.forename: Simone Georges El Khouri
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Miraglia
authors.forename: Paulo Hilário Nascimento
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Saldiva
authors.forename: György Miklós
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Böhm
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000191:economics; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000191:economics* / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002947:Cities; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D062665:Epidemiological Monitoring; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D015995:Prevalence; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000191:economics* / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality*; D001335:Vehicle Emissions
chemical_list: D001335:Vehicle Emissions