Realising economic benefits of environmental health

Reducing environment-related health problems could make people much better off. These problems have economic repercussions: they generate additional costs for patients and the social welfare system, they lead to lost productivity and profits for industry, and they often result in lost income for individuals. Last but not least, people assign considerable value to reducing health risks.

Work is ongoing calculating what would be the economic benefits of solving environmental health problems. Though still imprecise, these calculations already show that current economic losses may be considerable. This is a further argument in favour of policies aimed at mitigating environment-related health problems.