Valuing the Benefits of Rock Climbing and the Welfare Gains from Decreasing Injury Risk.

Rock climbing is an increasingly popular recreation activity worldwide, nevertheless there are only few studies that estimate the demand for it. In this article the Kuhn-Tucker approach is used to estimate the demand for rock climbing in Sicily, the recreation value of different climbing sites, and the welfare impact of reducing injury risk. In modeling the demand for climbing we account for the heterogeneity of preferences. We find that decreasing the level of injury risk generates remarkable welfare gains to climbers. This is the first study we know of that provides a welfare measure of risk reduction in rock climbing and one of a very few studies in environmental economics that uses a revealed preference approach to estimate a welfare measure associated with a reduction in risk.

An historical perspective on health-risk awareness and unhealthy behaviour: cigarette smoking in the United States 1949-1981.

OBJECTIVE: This paper investigates the change through time in the perception of smoking-related health harm and smoking behaviour from 1949 to 1981. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT: A variety of common behaviours can be linked to chronic disease risk-smoking, over-eating, and excessive sitting, to name a few. Changing behaviours to reduce exposure to such risks can be an effort that spans generations and decades. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Respondents to Gallup Poll surveys in the United States from 1949, 1954, 1957, 1971, 1972, 1977 and 1981. METHODS: Graphical analysis and probit regression are used to investigate trends through time and statistical associations of smoking with the perception of smoking-related health risks and other socio-demographic variables. INTERVENTION AND MAIN VARIABLE STUDIED: Perceived smoking health risk. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Smoking participation. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Our findings include the proportions of individuals who were self-reported smokers fell between 1949 and 1981, from 0.48 to 0.34. Among smokers, the proportion who believed smoking was harmful increased from 0.52 in 1949 to 0.81 in 1981. By 1981, the proportion of non-smokers who believed smoking was harmful was 0.98. A negative association between belief in smoking harm and the decision to smoke was shown in regression analysis. This association became more pronounced over the three decades under study.

Ecosystems, ecological restoration, and economics: does habitat or resource equivalency analysis mean other economic valuation methods are not needed?

Coastal and other area resources such as tidal wetlands, seagrasses, coral reefs, wetlands, and other ecosystems are often harmed by environmental damage that might be inflicted by human actions, or could occur from natural hazards such as hurricanes. Society may wish to restore resources to offset the harm, or receive compensation if this is not possible, but faces difficult choices among potential compensation projects. The optimal amount of restoration efforts can be determined by non-market valuation methods, service-to-service, or resource-to-resource approaches such as habitat equivalency analysis (HEA). HEA scales injured resources and lost services on a one-to-one trade-off basis. Here, we present the main differences between the HEA approach and other non-market valuation approaches. Particular focus is on the role of the social discount rate, which appears in the HEA equation and underlies calculations of the present value of future damages. We argue that while HEA involves elements of economic analysis, the assumption of a one-to-one trade-off between lost and restored services sometimes does not hold, and then other non-market economic valuation approaches may help in restoration scaling or in damage determination.

The effect of weather on walking behavior in older adults.

In this article, the authors examine how temperature and precipitation affect the probability that a retired American between the ages of 65 and 90 walks at least 2.5 hr/wk, using longitudinal data on walking frequency from the Consumption and Activities Mail Survey, a subpanel in the Health and Retirement Survey. Walking behavior is linked with monthly temperature and precipitation data from weather-station reports. The authors found that higher temperatures were associated with a higher probability of walking at least 2.5 hr/wk for women. In contrast, higher temperatures are associated with a lower probability of walking at least 2.5 hr/wk among men. Precipitation is not significantly associated with walking behavior for either gender.

Attributes affecting preferences for traffic safety camera programs.

With just a few notable exceptions, research supports the concept that red light cameras (RLCs) improve safety. However, many communities that have implemented RLC programs have faced a firestorm of public opinion associated with the use of RLCS, with many communities having to remove the cameras. What makes or breaks a red light camera program? Because of the experimental design process, stated choice is recognized as a tool that can resemble a laboratory experiment for the public policy arena. In this research, a stated choice model was developed and used to explore public preferences for a RLC program through an internet survey and a convenience sample drawn from a typical college town. The results suggest while independently the opposite is true, that when there is an increase in both the fine for violators and the number of cameras together (i.e., the interaction of these two) there is a perceived public safety gain. The interacted variable positively increases utility from the selected RLCS program we analyzed and could be key in generating public support for RLC programs. The results suggest some important deterrence theory implications for improving accident prevention through the use of RLC programs that are designed to avoid unnecessary public scrutiny.

An empirical model of perceived mortality risks for selected U.S. Arsenic hot spots.

Researchers have long recognized that subjective perceptions of risk are better predictors of choices over risky outcomes than science-based or experts' assessments of risk. More recent work suggests that uncertainty about risks also plays a role in predicting choices and behavior. In this article, we develop and estimate a formal model for an individual's perceived health risks associated with arsenic contamination of his or her drinking water. The modeling approach treats risk as a random variable, with an estimable probability distribution whose variance reflects uncertainty. The model we estimate uses data collected from a survey given to a sample of people living in arsenic-prone areas in the United States. The findings from this article support the fact that scientific information is essential to explaining the mortality rate perceived by the individuals, but uncertainty about the probability remains significant.

Significance of private water supply wells in a rural Nevada area as a route of exposure to aqueous arsenic.

In many rural areas domestic drinking water needs are met by a mixture of public water supplies and private water supplies. Private supplies are not subject to the regulations and management requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Amendments to the SDWA recently lowered the standard for arsenic from 50 to 10 ppb in public water supplies (effective in 2006). Churchill County, Nevada, has approximately 25,000 residents. Slightly more than half (13,500) rely on private domestic wells for water supply. Ample data and media publicity about high arsenic concentrations in water supplies and a federally led investigation of a leukaemia cluster suggested that residents of the county would be aware that arsenic concentrations in private wells were highly likely to exceed the 10 ppb standard. A survey carried out in 2002 showed that a majority of respondents (72%) consumed water from private wells and among them a minority (38%) applied treatment. Maximum, median and minimum concentrations of arsenic from all samples (n = 351) were 2,100, 26 and < 3 ppb, respectively. Seventy-four per cent of all samples exceeded 10 ppb. A majority (87%) of those who applied treatment consumed tap water. The relatively low rate of application of treatment suggested that these rural residents did not recognize that consumption could have associated health risks. However, those who applied treatment were approximately 0.3 times as likely to be consuming water with > 10 ppb arsenic than those who consumed water that was not treated. In areas where concentrations of arsenic have been demonstrated to be high, it may be important to conduct a focused educational effort for private well owners to ensure that they take the steps needed to assess and reduce risks associated with contaminants found in tap water, including arsenic. An educational effort could include promoting sampling efforts to determine the magnitude of arsenic concentrations, explaining the risk associated with arsenic consumption and providing information about choices for home treatment systems that are likely to be effective in removing arsenic. This may be especially important in rural areas where adverse health effects are not evident to local populations.

Treating and drinking well water in the presence of health risks from arsenic contamination: results from a U.S. hot spot.

The Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 regulates water quality in public drinking water supply systems but does not pertain to private domestic wells, often found in rural areas throughout the country. The recent decision to tighten the drinking water standard for arsenic from 50 parts per billion (ppb) to 10 ppb may therefore affect some households in rural communities, but may not directly reduce health risks for those on private wells. The article reports results from a survey conducted in a U.S. arsenic hot spot, the rural area of Churchill County, Nevada. This area has elevated levels of arsenic in groundwater. We find that a significant proportion of households on private wells are consuming drinking water with arsenic levels that pose a health risk. The decision to treat tap water for those on private wells in this area is modeled, and the predicted probability of treatment is used to help explain drinking water consumption. This probability represents behaviors relating to the household's perception of risk.