Accounting for public heath gains from pollution control

Despite scientific uncertainties, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency needs to estimate the value of all significant public health benefits when it considers regulating pollutants, a new report says (Science 2017, DOI: 10.1126/science.aam8204).

As it decides whether and how much to control pollution, EPA estimates costs to industry and others as well as benefits from improved public health. But when the agency calculates the dollar value of these . . .