Economic Valuation of Chemicals‑Related Health Effects

The project assessed people’s willingness-to-pay to reduce their risk of developing or worsening ten chemicals-related health effects. Willingness-to-pay values were also used to calculate the societal benefit of avoiding one case of each condition. 

Across the health effects surveyed, the average societal benefit of avoiding a single case ranges from USD 5 000 on the low end when it comes to skin sensitisation to USD 1 273 000 on the high end for very low birth weight. On average, people are also willing to pay USD 667 annually over 5 years to avoid the loss of one IQ point in children. Using these valuation estimates, policymakers can quantify the economic benefits of avoiding a given condition and compare them against the costs of implementing chemicals regulations.

Survey respondents were given the option to pay a price premium to reduce their risk of developing or worsening each health effect. The results show that people’s willingness-to-pay for this premium generally increases with the size of the reduction in the risk of developing a health effect. It also increases with a person’s income but decreases as the reduced-risk option becomes more expensive. In contrast, the effects of gender, experience with the malady and education vary across the ten health effects. 

While things like household income influence how much people are willing to pay to reduce their health risks, other factors, such as healthcare costs, confidence in health systems, awareness of chemical risks and perceptions of government regulation, can also shape how people value protection from harmful health effects. Survey respondents’ satisfaction with their government's regulation of harmful chemicals ranges from 23% to 41% across countries. When it comes to adult asthma and childhood IQ loss, those who felt that their government’s management of chemicals was sufficient were also willing to pay less to reduce their risk of experiencing these negative health effects.