Headlines - Adhering to WHO air pollution guidelines would reduce the societal cost of mortality by 53 billion euros per year in France

The business school at the University of Aix-Marseille has published an economic assessment of the impacts of chronic exposure to fine particulate matter on mortality in mainland France, in partnership with Santé publique France. It was based on:• Santé publique France’s quantitative health impact assessment (EQIS) of air pollution from PM2.5 fine particulate matter,• The economic valuation of a preventable death and a life-year lost, based on the official values proposed in the Quinet report, at 3 million euros and 80,000 euros, respectively. This reflects a non-market component, for which direct comparison with purely market components (such as Gross Domestic Product, GDP) is strongly discouraged.Several scenarios for reducing PM2.5 concentrations have been quantified for avoidable deaths and years of life lost, respectively:• The so-called “no anthropogenic pollution” scenario. It assesses the annual impact of a situation in which no municipality would exceed the PM2.5 level observed in the 5% least polluted municipalities, i.e., 4.9 μg/m³ (48,000 preventable premature deaths per year). The associated economic impacts are estimated at nearly 145 billion and 76 billion euros per year, respectively.• The “least polluted equivalent municipalities” scenario. It assesses the annual impact of a situation in which all municipalities would achieve the PM2.5 levels observed in the 5% least polluted municipalities within the same urbanization class (< 2,000 inhabitants, 2,000–20,000, 20,000–100,000, >100,000 inhabitants), resulting in 34,500 preventable deaths per year. The associated economic impacts are estimated at 103 billion and 52 billion euros per year, respectively.• The "WHO" scenario. It assesses the annual impact of a situation in which no French municipality would exceed the WHO guideline value (10 μg/m³ as an annual average), resulting in 17,712 preventable deaths. The associated economic impacts are estimated at nearly 53 billion and 32 billion euros per year, respectively. These are conservative estimates because they do not include the impact on morbidity. If we factor in the effects in terms of diseases (chronic respiratory conditions—such as asthma and COPD—or cardiovascular diseases), the societal cost is much higher. In 2015, the Senate estimated the net benefit of combating air pollution at 11 billion euros per year.