The cost of inaction

Abstract

from Milieu and Michael Holland from EMRC. The health economic models and calculations were developed and described by Meena Fernandes. The methodological framework for estimating costs for society, as well as the environmental economic models and calculations, were developed and described by Michael Holland.The Nordic Chemical Group (NKG) has been the project principal. The steering group under NKG comprised members from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland, including Toke Winther and Lars Fock (The Danish Environmental Protection Agency), Audun Heggelund (Norwegian Environment Agency), Signe Krarup (The Danish Ministry of Environment and Food) and Åsa Thors (The Swedish Chemicals Agency). Experts supporting the steering group for parts of the project included Jenny Jans, Inger Cederberg, Mattias Carlsson Feng, Daniel Borg (The Swedish Chemicals Agency) and Ísak Sigurjón Bragason (The Environment Agency of Iceland). Background and case study information

Management of PFAS with the aid of chemical product registries—an indispensable tool for future control of hazardous substances

“…Government officials have raised concerns that for some substances it is not clear whether they are defined as a polymer or not, based on the existing REACH definition (Nordic Council of Ministers 2018). There is an ongoing process under the EU to evaluate inclusion of registration requirement for polymers in the coming years (Nordic Council of Ministers 2018; Goldenman et al 2019b). In a workshop on PFAS, with policymakers from the Nordic countries, Austria, and Germany, it was proposed to include registration of polymers under REACH (Nordic Council of Ministers 2018).…”

“…The impact of PFAS on human health is tremendous in economic terms. In the European Economic Area the health impact has been estimated to cost between €52 and €84 billion per year according to Goldenman et al (2019a). In the same report a summary of non‐health‐related costs for the next 20 years has been estimated to range between €170 and €821 billion.…”

A sustainability assessment of an in situ ultrasonic reactor for remediation of PFAS‐contaminated groundwater

“…Kidney cancer is a probable endpoint from occupational PFAS exposure, and the report estimated for a European population (335,000 individuals), 83,627 would have an elevated risk of developing kidney cancer and from those individuals, 3.6 additional deaths would occur. The total value of these lives lost would be approximately 12.7 million Euros (Goldenman et al, 2019). These calculations used value of a statistical life (VSL) which is essentially the monetary benefit of avoiding a fatality.…”

“…The U.S. EPA VSL is $7.4 million (in 2006 dollars; U.S. EPA, 2010). Using the data (above) from Goldenman et al (2019) and kidney cancer as an endpoint, the number of additional deaths was estimated for a population of 12,000 individuals assumed to be affected by contaminated water in the case study. It is important to note that the estimate represents a simplified estimate of one mortality source to highlight the importance of considering health‐related costs.…”

“…Sustainability is frequently used to describe the intersection of socially useful, environmentally appropriate, and economically feasible approaches or concepts (Brundtland, 1987; Costanza & Patten, 1995; Goldenman et al, 2019; Vos, 2007). Sustainable remediation has become a widely held concept in the remediation industry where systems have increasingly been designed to meet remediation goals while minimizing impacts on the environment.…”