Study Revises Cost of Long Beach Air Pollution

Each case of asthma in Long Beach costs an average of $3,819 a year, and local traffic-related air pollution is likely a major cause, a new study says. The findings by researchers at the University of Southern California and two other major schools say that "the largest share of the cost of an asthma case was the indirect cost of asthma-related school absences" because "they often lead to parents or caregivers missing work."

The study published this week in the European Respiratory Journal said the average asthma case in Riverside cost even more -- $4,063 annually -- and said these amounts are much higher than set by previous risk assessments. Those didn't factor parents' missed work days, extra doctor visits, travel time, and the price of prescriptions. For instance, the cost of a single episode of bronchitic symptoms averaged $915 in Long Beach and $972 in Riverside, the study found, and put the combined cost of the illness for the two cities at $18 million a year. It blamed half of new asthma cases in Long Beach and Riverside on pollution. 

"Families with children who have asthma are bearing a high cost," said University of Massachusetts Amherst resource economist Sylvia Brandt, who led the study. A UMass news release announcing the findings further quotes Brandt as saying: "The total annual estimate between $3,800 and $4,000 represents 7 percent of median household income in our study in these two communities. This is troublesome because that is higher than the 5 percent considered to be a bearable or sustainable level of health care costs for a family." 

The University of Basel, Switzerland, and Sonoma Technology Inc. also participated in the study, which was financed by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the U.S. National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Hastings Foundation.