Post Date: 07/27/10 | Category: Lead News

A new report prepared by the Michigan Network for Children's Environmental Health, of which the Healthy Homes Coalition is a member, reports estimates the annual environmentally attributable costs of lead poisoning at $3.2 - $4.85 billion for Michigan residents.

Other estimated costs of children's environmntal health conditions include:

• Childhood Asthma: $88.4 million (range: $29.5 to $103.2 million)
• Pediatric Cancer: $17.3 million (range: $6.9 to $34.6 million)
• Neurodevelopmental Disorders: $845 million (range: $423 million to $1.69 billion)

From the report abstract:

Diseases linked in part or whole to environmental exposures make an important and insufficiently recognized contribution to total pediatric health care, education, and other costs to Michigan.  Using methodology previously published by Landrigan et al. (2002), we estimated the costs of four categories of pediatric illness in Michigan that may be partially attributable to chemical pollutants in the environment by applying an environmentally attributable fraction (EAF) model.  We found that the best conservative estimate of the annual environmentally attributable costs of lead poisoning, childhood asthma, pediatric cancer, and selected neurodevelopmental disorders in children in Michigan is $5.8 billion (range: $3.65 to $6.68 billion).  These costs include both direct and indirect costs wherever possible.  Direct costs include such things as prescriptions and hospitalization costs.  Indirect costs can include loss of parental wages due to their children's missed schooldays and loss of lifetime earnings due to the premature death of the children. 

These cost estimates (above) are conservative, and rely on Michigan-specific data whenever possible.

To put these costs in context, these four environmentally attributable childhood diseases and disorders cost Michigan the equivalent about 1.5% of its Gross Domestic Product every year. It is important to note that these economic costs represent childhood illnesses and loss of earning potential that could be avoided should the environmental exposures be eliminated. The findings of this study demonstrate that reducing environmental exposures to toxic chemicals in children is not only ethical, but also potentially economically advantageous.

For a full copy of the report, click here.