Thread by @AlecStapp

New paper from economist @ClaudiaLPersico published by @ppi this week.

This is the best literature review out there on the negative economic effects from pollution.

Here's a thread with the most alarming facts & statistics from the paper...

Here's a map of all the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) and Superfund sites.

Living near a toxic waste site is bad for you!

"221.5 million people had a TRI site operating in their zip code in 2016"

"Nearly 22% of all public schools were within one mile of a TRI facility in 2016"

Pollution disproportionately affects low-income/minority groups:

"Low-income children are up to 12 times more likely to have elevated blood-lead-levels than their wealthier peers"

"Black children ages 1–5 are more than twice as likely to be lead-poisoned than their white peers"

"According to the EPA, an estimated 6.5 million to 10 million homes and businesses nationwide still get water through older service lines that contain lead (EPA 2016)."

"Grossman and Slusky (2019) find that after the Flint water switch, fertility rates decreased by 12% and there was a 5.4% decrease in birth weight. Low birth weight is associated with increased risk of childhood disability and worse long run outcomes."

"children exposed to more carbon monoxide air pollution during gestation have worse test scores in school than their siblings. An increase of one standard deviation in carbon monoxide (CO) leads to a 0.034 standard deviation decrease in fourth grade math scores."

"Children living within two miles of an uncleaned Superfund site had a 23% increase in the likelihood of cognitive disabilities including learning disabilities, autism, intellectual disability, and speech and language impairments."

"attending a school downwind of a highway is associated with a 0.04 standard deviation lower test scores, a 4 percentage point increase in behavioral incidents, and a 0.53 percentage point increase in the rate of absences over the school year."

"children attending school with 10% more lead-exposed peers in a cohort are 1.6% more likely to be suspended and 10% more likely to be chronically absent from school."

"We estimate that lead costs $208 billion for a single birth-year cohort."

"a 1% increase in sulfur dioxide levels decreased hours worked by 0.72%"

"arsenic pollution leads to an 8% reduction in labor supply overall, likely because people are getting sick and staying home"

"municipalities strategically place and turn off monitors to avoid Clean Air Act violations, and true air quality in many places is worse than pollution monitors would indicate."

"monitors are often strategically positioned by local regulators to avoid pollution hotspots."

"About one in four (or >80 million) Americans live within 3 miles of a federal Superfund site, a location with particularly high levels of environmental toxicants, and about 11 million Americans, including 3-4 million children, live within one mile of a Superfund site."

"The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimates that 87% of houses built before 1940 in the U.S. have lead paint, compared to 69% of houses built between 1940 and 1959 and 24% of houses built between 1960 and 1977."

"While the CDC recommends that children be tested before 72 months of age via a blood test in a doctor’s office, according to the CDC in 2017, only 18.7% of U.S. children were tested for lead."

"54% of public school districts need to update or replace multiple building systems or features in their schools."

"36,000 schools need HVAC updates, and 41% need to update or replace heating, ventilation, or air conditioning."

"putting air purifiers in classrooms led to a 0.2 standard deviation increase in test scores for children, compared to children in local schools that did not get the air purifiers. This is similar to the effect of small class sizes in the famous Tennessee Project STAR experiment"

"a $1,000 increase in income from the Earned Income tax Credit leads to a 0.06 standard deviation increase in tests scores. This implies that removing pollution might have similar effects to increasing family income by $3,333."

"While PM2.5 pollution had been falling for years, it began rising again in 2017."

"Clay and Muller (2021) find that pollution has increased 5.5% overall in the U.S. since 2016, which coincided with a decline in enforcement."

While these statistics are alarming, all hope is not lost.

There is lots we can do to remediate these harms (starting with investment in infrastructure!)

Check out @ClaudiaLPersico's policy recommendations:

And read the full paper by @ClaudiaLPersico here: innovationfrontier.org/how-exposure-t…

It was a pleasure getting to publish her work. Please read it!