Valuing health effects from the industrial air pollution in rural Tianjin, China.

ABSTRACT

High concentrations of air pollutants such as total suspended particulates (TSP) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) have serious impacts on nearby populations. In this paper, a survey of rural Tianjin residents' willingness-to-pay for health improvement was reported on, and the MBDC (multiple bounded discrete choice) model was adopted to study the respondents' willingness-to-pay to prevent respiratory illnesses. The results showed that the willingness-to-pay for health improvement was affected by respondents' health condition, work situation and environmental awareness, but not by personal habits, such as smoking. If person's willingness-to-pay to avoid respiratory diseases can be considered equal to the cost to personal health caused by air pollution, the total cost will reach 538 x 10(6) RMB Yuan (RMB, equal to 65 million USD) per year.