Air pollution is a growing concern that has gained an increasing level of attention by both scientists and legislators. This need to understand the degree of damages resulting from airborne residuals has sparked many projects to determine how these residuals are affecting us, and the cost that they bear to both our economy and our health. Once this information has been found, only then can we look at ways to estimate the benefit of pollution abatement.

Methods of determining mortality and morbidity related to airborne residuals are often unreliable and inadequate considering the amount of variables unknown. Epidemiological studies include data that are the best adapted to the estimation of air pollution effects. This data is gathered over long periods of time, however it is harder to pinpoint morbidity data because we don't know all the things that made someone become ill. Another problem with gathering this is that a lot of morbidity simply isn't reported. What is being reported is employment based, which includes things such as vacation and sick days. From this data we don't have a way to relate sickness to that of pollution. To further complicate the problem, the use of d

Two techniques used for analysis in hopes of finding more accurate results were factor analysis on pollution and disease experience across SMAS followed by appropriate correlation analysis; and canonical correlations between pollution and disease experience across SMASs. The pollutants used in the analysis included NO2, SO2, and SO4. The determination of disease categories was based on technical medical advice, which should indicate that they are not fact, rather only a best guess.

The correlations between diseases and human health showed highly significant results relating SO2 and SO4 to gastrointestinal cancer and arteriosclerotic heart disease. Also, breast cancer was found highly correlated and very significant in relation to NO2. Asthma and emphysema show a negative sign meaning that they are inversely related, and therefore significant.

Mortality from heart disease concluded that a substantial abatement of air pollution would lead to a 10 to 15 percent reduction in death rates. What is still questionable is how much is a " substantial " abatement. This value is very vague and therefore should not be accepted without a more definitive number.

Looking at the results from this study, it is clear that potential losses to producers do exist. The results indicate a potential loss of about $65 million in 1979. These losses are at a point in time in comparison with the ORBES study covering the period from 1976 to 2000. Of the five states, New York suffered the highest losses, which attributed to 78.1% of the total losses. The losses associated with corn and hay were roughly 8.2% of producer surplus related to a clean air situation. However, there is no split between utility and background sources. The study uses ambient regions to get ambient concentrations and acidity of rainfall. In the presence of dirty air, 6% was the losses attributed to corn production, while 10% was attributed to hay. It should be noted that no research of their own was used in forming the damage coefficient for hay. They used literature to estimate for the hay.

Having utilized both of these methods in looking at the relationship between air pollution and human health are Lester B. Lave and Eugene P. Seskin. Their investigation has looked at the mortality experienced based on a certain smoke and deposit index between both males and females in different county boroughs in England. The results from these areas are in relation to such diseases as bronchitis, lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disease. Through a multiple regression analysis, they concluded that air pollution accounts for a doubling of the bronchitis mortality rate for urban, as compared to rural, areas. The variation of the mortality ranges from .3 to.8, which concludes that it is a significant explanatory variable in all cases. From this they proposed that if the air quality in all the boroughs were improved to the quality to that of the best air in all the samples, the average mortality rate would fall from 129 to 77. This represents a 40 percent drop in the death rate among males and a 70 percent drop among females. They also claim that bronchitis mortality can be reduced from 25 to 50 percent depending on the location and deposit index. This seems hard to imagine considering how and if the air could actually be made to the best air experienced.

Another area in which it is relevant to assess airborne residuals is in the agricultural sector. To appropriately deal with this issue requires looking at background information over time. This will allow a person to make their best guess for a model to illustrate what is taking place. The model requires air quality modeling which will help show what is happening to convert emissions into ambient concentrations. This is influenced by factors such as time, temperature, moisture, and wind direction. Emissions from both point and mobile sources should be viewed to relate ambient concentrati

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2720
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)