Willingness to pay to avoid certain health impacts

ECHA commissioned a service contract to examine the economic benefits of avoiding selected adverse human health outcomes due to exposure to chemicals. Three original surveys were conducted in four Member States (Italy, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands) with the aim of obtaining representative (average) EU-wide estimates.

Willingness to pay values were derived for about 20 health outcomes, including acute and chronic dermatitis, kidney injury, cancer risks, chance of conceiving a child, birth defects and very low birth weight, or respiratory sensitisation within both private as well as public good contexts.

The work started in March 2012 when ECHA signed an agreement with Charles University in Prague and the VU University Amsterdam. The final reports of the study are now available.

The results – Willingness to Pay estimates – can be used to facilitate the preparation of a socio-economic analysis in restriction proposals and applications for authorisation. ECHA intends to provide additional information summarising the results in this regard. These Willingness to Pay estimates could also be helpful in other policy areas.

 

See

Stated-preference study to examine the economic value of benefits of avoiding selected adverse human health outcomes due to exposure to chemicals in the EU