Health and economic cost estimates of short-term total and wildfire PM2.5 exposure on work loss: using the...

To help determine the health protectiveness of government regulations and policies for air pollutant control for Americans, our study aimed to investigate the health and economic impacts of work loss due to sickness associated with daily all-source and wildfire-specific PM_2.5 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 2.5 μm) exposures in California.

We linked the 2015-2018 California Health Interview Survey respondents' geocoded home addresses to daily PM_2.5 estimated by satellites and atmospheric modelling simulations and wildfire-related PM_2.5 from Community Multiscale Air Quality models. We calculated and applied the coefficient for the association between daily PM_2.5 exposure and work loss from regression analyses to the Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program-Community Edition (BenMAP-CE) platform to assess the health and economic impacts of PM_2.5 exposure on work loss due to sickness.

We observed that each 1 µg/m³ increase in daily total PM_2.5 exposure will lead to about 1 million days of work loss per year ranging from 1.1 to 1.6 million person-days, and the related economic loss was $310-390 million. Wildfire smoke alone could contribute to 0.7-2.6 million work-loss days with a related economic loss of $129-521 million per year in 2015-2018. Using the function coefficient in the current BenMAP, the excess work-loss days due to sickness was about 250 000 days and the estimated economic loss was about $45-50 million for each 1 µg/m³ increase in daily total PM_2.5 exposure, and wildfire smoke alone would lead to 0.17-0.67 million work-loss days with related economic loss of $31-128 million per year during the same period.

Both conventional and wildfire-specific sources of PM_2.5 produced substantial work loss and cost in California. Updating the current BenMAP-CE calculations for work-loss days will be essential in quantifying the current health impacts of PM_2.5 to help inform the policies and regulations to protect public health.