Improving air quality is good for the economy and for health, one of the world’s leading pollution scientists told a legislative task force Thursday.
C. Arden Pope, a Brigham Young University economist, said that for every dollar spent on cutting air pollution there are around $10 in savings — because health care costs go down, premature deaths decrease and other measurable savings are realized. Pope noted that he could not quantify the costs and benefits of clear air in Utah.
The lawmakers and industry representatives who are part of the Legislature’s Economic Development Task Force had lots of questions for Pope, whose studies on the links between pollution and health form part of the foundation of the nation’s air-pollution regulations.
