Estimation Of The Public Health Value Loss Caused By Water Pollution

With the development of economy, people’s living standards are improving, but the continued deterioration of the environment also has a serious threat to human health, the association between environmental pollution and human health has become the focus of public attention problems. A number of studies have shown that high incidence of cancer has a certain relationship with the water pollution.In this paper, firstly we sort out the research about the estimation of the public health value loss nowadays, and introduce some assessment methods such as human capital method, cost of illnes’s and willingness to pay survey method. Secondly, we use the data of China’s32cancer registration points from2004to2009to analyze the impact of different pollution levels on health indicators by constructing the random effects model and the simultaneous equation model, which proves the negative health effects of water pollution. Then we estimate the public health value loss caused by water pollution of these32regions over the six years by using modified human capital approach and cost of illness method. At last, according to the research result, we put forward some policy implications.The main conclusions are as follows:(1) Through the analysis of the current situation of water pollution, we find that industrial wastewater emissions are increasing year by year, which has a great threat to public health. In this paper, we use five indicators of gastrointestinal cancer mortality and confirm the negative health effects of water pollution, which need the attention of the public and some relevant departments.(2) According to the regression results, physical capital investment, the amount of labor and education level has a significant positive impact on the level of per capita income, while total population has a negative impact on the level of per capita income; Public health has a significant negative impact on economic growth, since the article selects mortality rate to represent this indicator; Industrial wastewater emission intensity has a positive impact on economic growth; Proportion of tertiary industry and industrial wastewater emission intensity is negatively correlated, this indicates that the development of tertiary industry will help to improve environmental quality.(3) From the each segment of the public health value loss caused by water pollution, we can see that early mortality loss accounts for the largest proportion of total loss, up to75%, and this proportion increased slightly over times.(4) Through the estimation of public health value loss caused by water pollution in32regions over the six years from2004to2009, we find that this value loss is rising in recent years, which means the water quality is deteriorating now. However, the growth rate has slowly declined, indicating that environmental policies have good effect.(5) From the horizontal point, we find that different level of water pollution has a different result in the health value loss. The relatively large loss of pollution is Shanghai, Hangzhou, Beijing and Guangzhou, representing55.01%-57.33%of the total loss. From provincial point, we know that Shanghai, Beijing, Hubei, Zhejiang have large losses, while Sichuan, Shanxi, Anhui, Guangxi have smaller losses. Besides, the health value loss in rural is slightly higher than that in urban areas. This may because industrial pollution transfer causes more serious pollution in rural areas. And the health value loss in eastern area is significantly higher than that in the central and western regions, because the eastern regions have a higher degree of industrialization and more environmental pollution.