Authors
Resources for the Future
Alan Krupnick
Deirdre Farrell
Summary The Health Effects Module was developed by Resources for
the Future to quantify the health improvements associated with
Title IV of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. This module uses
estimates of changes in ambient air quality and demographic
information to compute reductions in the numbers of days of
acute morbidity effects and medical consequences (such as
hospital admissions) of various types, in the number of chronic
disease cases, and in the number of statistical lives lost to
premature death. Estimates are based on an up-to-date,
comprehensive survey of concentration-response (C-R) functions
found in the peer-reviewed epidemiological literature, EPA
Criteria Documents, and other major health benefit studies. The
module examines health effects associated with NOx, SO2, and particulates that are 10 micrometers or less
in diameter (PM10). Users have
the options of imposing thresholds on response related to
baseline PM10
concentrations.
The module passes the effects estimates to the Scenario Benefits
Module, which transforms these estimates into monetary
terms. Download the complete TAF
User's Guide (300+pp.) in Acrobat format (requires Adobe
Acrobat)