This paper describes alternative empirical techniques of economic analysis to assess the monetary value of human health, and outlines the issues that arise when these techniques are transported to value environmental hazard interventions intended to improve the health of young children. It examines four economic valuation techniques currently used to assess changes in human health (i.e., cost of illness method, hedonic method, averting behavior method, and contingent valuation method) and critiques the applicability of these techniques for assessing the value of children's health changes.

This report, the final output of the Valuation of Environment-Related Health Impacts (VERHI) project, presents new findings on whether the value of reducing environmental risk greater for children than for adults.

This OECD book proposes an in depth analysis of the main methodological difficulties associated with estimating the social value of a reduction in environmental health risks to children.

The relationship between environment and children’s health has been the subject of increasing interest these last ten years. For instance, many OECD Member countries are reporting asthma epidemics exacerbated by air pollution: in the United States nearly 1 in 13 school-age children (approximately 4.8 million) has asthma, and the rate is increasing more rapidly in school-age children than in any other group. The importance of this issue has resulted in a growing number of epidemiological studies aiming at better understanding and better characterising the relationship between environmental pollution and the health of children. However, in many respects, the valuation of children’s health strongly differs from the valuation of adults’ health and constitutes a real challenge for analysts as well as for decision-makers. Consequently, this book proposes an in depth analysis of the main methodological difficulties associated with estimating the social value of a reduction in risk to children. Questions such as how to elicit children’s preferences, what valuation methodology and benefit measure to choose, how to discount benefits to children’s health, and how to account for economic uncertainties in this specific context of economic valuation will be systematically examined in order to define key policy implications and to pave the way for further research.

Over the past four decades, the prevalence of autism, asthma, ADHD, obesity, diabetes, and birth defects have grown substantially among children around the world. Not coincidentally, more than 80,000 new chemicals have been developed and released into the global environment during this same period. Today the World Health Organization attributes 36% of all childhood deaths to environmental causes. Children's environmental health is a new and expanding discipline that studies the profound impact of chemical and environmental hazards on child health. Amid mounting evidence that children are exquisitely sensitive to their environment-and that exposure during their developmental "windows of susceptibility" can trigger cellular changes that lead to disease and disability in infancy, childhood, and across the life span-there is a compelling need for continued scientific study of the relationship between children's health and environment. The Textbook of Children's Environmental Health codifies the knowledge base and offers an authoritative and comprehensive guide to this important new field. Edited by two internationally recognized pioneers in the area, this volume presents up-to-date information on the chemical, biological, physical, and societal hazards that confront children in today's world: pesticides, indoor and outdoor air pollution, lead, arsenic, phthalates, bisphenol A, brominated flame retardants, ionizing radiation, electromagnetic fields, and the built environment. It presents carefully documented data on rising rates of disease in children, offers a critical summary of new research linking pediatric disease with environmental exposures, and explores the cellular, molecular, and epigenetic mechanisms underlying diseases of environmental origin. With this volume's emphasis upon integrating theory and practice, readers will find practical approaches to channeling scientific findings into evidence-based strategies for preventing and identifying the environmental hazards that cause disease in children. It is a landmark work that will serve as the field's benchmark for years to come.

This report, the final output of the Valuation of Environment-Related Health Impacts (VERHI) project, presents new findings on whether the value of reducing environmental risk greater for children than for adults.

The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest. Although life expectancy and survival rates in the United States have improved dramatically over the past century, Americans live shorter lives and experience more injuries and illnesses than people in other high-income countries. The U.S. health disadvantage cannot be attributed solely to the adverse health status of racial or ethnic minorities or poor people: even highly advantaged Americans are in worse health than their counterparts in other, "peer" countries. In light of the new and growing evidence about the U.S. health disadvantage, the National Institutes of Health asked the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene a panel of experts to study the issue. The Panel on Understanding Cross-National Health Differences Among High-Income Countries examined whether the U.S. health disadvantage exists across the life span, considered potential explanations, and assessed the larger implications of the findings. U.S. Health in International Perspective presents detailed evidence on the issue, explores the possible explanations for the shorter and less healthy lives of Americans than those of people in comparable countries, and recommends actions by both government and nongovernment agencies and organizations to address the U.S. health disadvantage.

Children can face disproportionately greater risk from environmental hazards because they are kids-smaller bodies, faster metabolisms, shorter attentions spans, less knowledge, and fewer resources. Environmental programs that reduce risks to children produce benefits to society that should be adequately represented so policy makers have more information to help them decide which policies are most worthwhile relative to their costs. The open question is just how exactly to value these reductions in risks to children, risks which can arise either from a direct effect on their health, or an indirect effect on their life chances because of illness in other family members or the degradation of the environment. This article focuses on valuing these indirect effects to a child`s life chances. The question addressed here is whether standard benefits estimation adequately captures the indirect effects on healthy children. If policy makers presume caregivers make fully informed, rational choices when dealing with adverse family health, indirect effects are already accounted for in revealed and stated values: estimating indirect effects implies double counting of benefits. But if policy makers fear that caregivers face choice without complete information or experience, indirect effects might be understated. Then it becomes constructive to devote resources to explore the importance of these indirect effects.

Every day we are exposed to toxins and toxicants that can impact our health. Yet we rarely teach elementary and secondary students about these exposures and how they can reduce their risk to them. In this book we highlight activities and curriculum developed at nine universities in the United States from a grant funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Our goal is to extend these lessons to a global audience and for classroom teachers of all subjects and age levels to include environmental health in their teaching. ‘An invaluable tool for equipping informed citizens to think about the environment and its human impacts --both the science, and equally important, the social and ethical dimensions’ , Howard Frumkin, M.D., Dr. P.H., Dean, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

In June 2004, the 52 countries in the WHO European region agreed to adopt the Childrens Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe, setting out a framework for national policy implementation in relation to environmental risk factors and their effects on childrens health. This publication contains guidance on the development of national action plans suited to each countrys circumstances, priorities and resources, whilst still addressing region-wide environmental risk factors.