UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460
OFFICE OF THE ADMINISTRATOR
SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD
June 29, 2004
EPA-SAB-CON-04-004
The Honorable Michael O. Leavitt
Administrator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20460
Subject: The Valuation of Mortality Risk Reduction: A Science Advisory Board
Notification of a Consultation
Dear Administrator Leavitt:
The Environmental Economics Advisory Committee (EEAC) of the EPA Science
Advisory Board (SAB) met on May 13, 2004 to conduct a consultation with the National Center
for Environmental Economics (NCEE) on the valuation of mortality risk reduction.
EPA has been addressing the benefits of regulations against their costs. Because the
benefits of regulations often involve reduced risks of human mortality, economists have devised a
numbers of ways to estimate society's willingness to pay for these reduced risks of mortality.
This willingness to pay is known as the "value of statistical life" (VSL), and it does not measure
the actual value of a particular life or the lives being saved by regulations. To capture VSL,
economists use both surveys and market studies to estimate society's willingness to pay for
reduced risk. Accordingly, NCEE sought the SAB's advice on the most sound approaches to the
valuation of mortality risk reduction. Information from the consultation will be considered as
NCEE revises the Agency's Guidelines for Preparing Economic Analyses (2000).
The SAB has developed the Consultation as a mechanism to advise the Agency on
technical issues that should be considered in the development of regulations, guidelines, or
technical guidance before the Agency has taken a position. During a Consultation, there is no
attempt or intent to express an SAB consensus or to generate a formal position. A Consultation is
conducted under the normal requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which include
advance notice of the public meeting in the Federal Register. As is our customary practice, there
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will be no formal report from the SAB as a result of this Consultation; however, the minutes of
the meeting, now posted at the SAB Web Site, constitute the record of this Consultation.
Sincerely,
/Signed/ /Signed/
Dr. William Glaze, Chair Dr. Maureen Cropper, Chair
EPA Science Advisory Board Environmental Economics Advisory Committee
EPA Science Advisory Board
Attachment: Roster of Consultative Panel on the Valuation of Mortality Risk Reduction
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Science Advisory Board
Consultative Panel on the Valuation of Mortality Risk Reduction
CHAIR
Dr. Maureen L. Cropper, Lead Economist, The World Bank, Washington, DC
MEMBERS
Dr. Anna Alberini, Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics -
AREC, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Dr. Dallas Burtraw, Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future, Washington, DC
Dr. James Hammitt, Professor of Economics and Decision Sciences, Department of Health
Policy and Management, School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA
Also Member: Council on Clean Air Compliance Analysis
Dr. W. Michael Hanemann, Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics,
University of California, Berkeley, CA
Dr. Gloria Helfand, Associate Professor of Environmental Economics, School of Natural
Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Dr. Arik Levinson, Associate Professor, Economics Department, Georgetown University,
Washington, DC
Dr. James Opaluch, Professor, Department of Environmental & Natural Resource Economics,
College of the Environment and Life Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI
Dr. Stephen Polasky, Fesler-Lampert Professor of Ecological/Environmental Economics,
Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN
Dr. Kathleen Segerson, Professor, Department of Economics, University of Connecticut, Storrs,
CT
Dr. Hilary Sigman, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Faculty of Arts and
Sciences, Rutgers University, Brunswick, NJ
SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD STAFF
Dr. Holly Stallworth, Designated Federal Officer, Mail Code 1400F, 1200 Pennsylvania
Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, 20460, Phone: 202-343-9867, (stallworth.holly@epa.gov)
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