According to a senatorial report, France spends nearly 100 billion euros each year to counter damage linked to air pollution.
It is now official, air pollution has a cost. If we already knew the statistics drawn from various studies affirming that fine particles kill more than AIDS and malaria across the world, a brand new report, presented by a Senate committee chaired by Jean-François Husson (Les Républicains) and entitled “Air pollution: the cost of inaction” gives a very precise figure for the expenses generated by atmospheric pollution. According to the various estimates in the report, overall, this phenomenon would cost France 100 billion euros annually.
If we analyze this figure in detail, we can see that the total health cost linked to indoor air pollution (produced on the national territory) represents a cost of 19 billion euros per year. By itself, the health cost linked to prolonged exposure to pollution is equivalent to 4.3 billion euros, a figure that includes expenses caused by illnesses, absenteeism from work resulting therefrom, or a drop in agricultural yields.
Consequences on the health system
At a minimum, the impact on the French health system is suddenly estimated at 3 billion euros. The various pathologies linked to asthma, caused by an excessive concentration of fine particles present in the air breathed, as well as certain cancers, and of course, the cost of hospitalizations caused by these diseases. According to the rapporteur Leïla Aïchi (EELV), whose comments were collected by AFP, the overall health cost is “largely underestimated. The health effects of certain pollutants are thus poorly understood, in particular the “cocktail effect” of the presence of several pollutants. This cocktail effect is a major question, in particular in the field of agriculture, since certain mixtures of insecticides and pesticides would be particularly dangerous for our organism.
It is clear that pollution affects our health in a notable way. If, as the pediatric surgeon Patrice Halimi explains on a daily basis The Parisian, “Asthma has increased by 100% in children in twenty years”, these diseases are also felt in adults. In fact, the air pollution of automobile origin which affects children in their first year of life is the cause of several respiratory problems during adolescence. In addition, this pollution reduces our immune defenses and exposes the people concerned to serious attacks of allergies.
Towards a nitrogen and fine particles tax?
To combat this, the report presents a list of 61 measures supposed to contain air pollution. If it is a question of supplementing certain already existing standards, a real resolution is also presented, that of developing an ecological tax system, proposing, among other things, the establishment of a tax on nitrogen and carbon emissions. fine particles.
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