Last Updated: Wednesday, Mar 29 2006 10:44 PM
The San Joaquin Valley's bad air costs us more than $3 billion a year -- roughly equal to the gross value of Kern's annual agricultural production -- according to a study released Wednesday by Cal State Fullerton researchers.
The study tabulates the price of school absences, doctors' visits, lost productivity, early deaths and other factors that drive the cost of pollution to an annual average of about $1,000 per valley resident.
That's "a significant value to most households," said Jane Hall, an economics professor and author of the study, in an interview Wednesday. "(The team's findings are) another way of understanding the impacts people feel in their daily lives."
The $3 billion figure seems a little high, said Mike Maggard, the new chairman of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District board.
"Before we do anything drastic, we need to thoroughly analyze and examine if these numbers are a reasonable estimate," he said.
The study gives the valley's air pollution a $3.24 billion price tag. The cost of premature deaths triggered by fine particles lodging deep in the lungs accounts for almost all of that total.
The Fullerton researchers value these 460 annual valley deaths at $3.08 billion. Illnesses, school absences and lost productivity, among other factors, cost the valley an additional $156.6 million each year, according to the report.
On average, people who die from fine particle exposure shave 14 years off their lifespans, according to the study's authors, who used state and federal data to quantify the value of lost years.
The study is full of staggering figures:
n The cost of Kern's poor air quality is more than $700 million annually.
n Achieving federal air standards would eliminate 100 air pollution-related deaths every year among Kern residents 30 and older.
n Bad air accounts for 188,000 annual school absences in the San Joaquin Valley. Of those, 45,900 are tallied in Kern County.
San Joaquin Valley air regulators hadn't reviewed the study in detail but said they welcome work that highlights the urgency of the air pollution problem.
"This is something that lends credence to our argument that help is needed in the valley," said Kelly Morphy, a spokeswoman for the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District.
Air pollution triggers 260 annual hospital admissions for asthma and other lung problems in the San Joaquin Valley, according to the study. When considering state figures that show a child's two- to three-day asthma hospitalization costs an average of about $8,000 in Kern, the multibillion-dollar total bill "is not all that surprising," said Sharon Borradori, program director for the American Lung Association of California, Kern County branch.
In addition to particulate pollution, the study also quantified the impact of ozone pollution, or smog. Ozone triggers asthma and other lung problems, which lead to work and school absences, hospital visits and other matters.
The study's researchers used air quality data through 2004.
One potential upshot of the study's bleak economic picture is that the valley had one of its best smog years on record in 2005, said Brenda Turner, a spokeswoman for the valley air district. In 2005, the valley had 72 days of smog violations, down from six consecutive years of more than 100 days of smog violations.