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[Economic evaluation and decision making in environmental health]
C Gutiérrez Zúñiga1, P Hernández Peña, C Ortiz Guerrero
1Colegio de Jalisco, México.
Revista De Saude Publica
|April 1, 1994
Summary
Environmental policies require economic evaluation to balance health and environmental protection with feasibility. This analysis explores cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness tools, highlighting their strengths and limitations for decision-making.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Health Economics
- Policy Analysis
Context:
- Increasing environmental deterioration necessitates policies for human health and ecological protection.
- Economic feasibility of environmental protection alternatives is crucial for policy design.
- Social and political factors significantly influence environmental policy implementation.
Purpose:
- To analyze the utility of economic evaluation tools for environmental decision-making.
- To summarize cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness methodologies in environmental health.
- To identify challenges in quantifying non-monetary costs of environmental risks.
Summary:
- Economic evaluation, including cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses, provides a framework for comparing environmental protection alternatives.
- These tools systematically organize costs and benefits but face challenges in quantifying non-monetary health damages like pain and suffering.
- Enhancing information on cost-benefit distributions among social groups is vital for informed environmental health policy.
Impact:
- Informs policy decisions by providing a structured economic perspective on environmental health issues.
- Highlights the methodological limitations of economic tools in capturing the full spectrum of health impacts.
- Emphasizes the need for transparency and awareness of political implications in economic evaluations for environmental policy.