Impact of air pollution on health in Klang Valley, Malaysia

In Malaysia, as in other parts of the world, air pollution has recently been receiving priority among environmental issues. The ambient atmospheric conditions have been progressively deteriorating due to unprecedented growth in urbanization, number of motor vehicles and continuous industrial develop...

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Main Authors: Rafia, Afroz, Hassan, Mohd Nasir, Awang, Muhamad, Ibrahim, Akma
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOI press 2006
Subjects:
Online Access:http://irep.iium.edu.my/6489/1/Document3.pdf
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author Rafia, Afroz
Hassan, Mohd Nasir
Awang, Muhamad
Ibrahim, Akma
author_facet Rafia, Afroz
Hassan, Mohd Nasir
Awang, Muhamad
Ibrahim, Akma
author_sort Rafia, Afroz
collection IIUM
description In Malaysia, as in other parts of the world, air pollution has recently been receiving priority among environmental issues. The ambient atmospheric conditions have been progressively deteriorating due to unprecedented growth in urbanization, number of motor vehicles and continuous industrial development. Monitoring data and studies on ambient air quality show that the ambient air quality of the country is clean in general but some of the air pollutants in several large cities especially in Klang Valley, the most densely populated area, are increasing with time and are not always at acceptable levels according to the national ambient air quality standards. This research employed contingent valuation method (CVM) to estimate the willingness to pay of the respondents to avoid the illness episodes due to air pollution. To evaluate the impact of additional information on the willingness to pay (WTP) of the respondents, different sub-samples were presented with contingent valuation scenarios offering different levels of information. One sub-sample was given the cause of ill-health episodes and the policy to be implemented to remedy the cause of the ill-health episodes (context version). Another sub-sample was asked to value the avoidance of episodes of ill-health, but was not given any details of the cause of the episodes nor the policy that would be implemented to remedy the cause of ill-health episodes (non-context version). The study has found that the inclusion of additional information in the presentation of scenarios in contingent valuation exercises significantly influenced WTP for the avoidance of ill-health episodes. The average mean value of WTP of the respondents for the context version was higher than that of the non-context version i.e. RM154 for the context version and RM134 for the non-context version. Since, WTP to avoid the ill-health episodes cannot be shown to be independent of the context in which it is valued, the validity of transferring benefits of avoided ill-health episodes from one country to another must be called into question and the results of the study will not allow decision makers to apply the estimated values for the avoidance of ill-health episodes in the consideration of policies with very different context.
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spelling oai:generic.eprints.org:64892014-12-15T02:41:29Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/6489/ Impact of air pollution on health in Klang Valley, Malaysia Rafia, Afroz Hassan, Mohd Nasir Awang, Muhamad Ibrahim, Akma H Social Sciences (General) In Malaysia, as in other parts of the world, air pollution has recently been receiving priority among environmental issues. The ambient atmospheric conditions have been progressively deteriorating due to unprecedented growth in urbanization, number of motor vehicles and continuous industrial development. Monitoring data and studies on ambient air quality show that the ambient air quality of the country is clean in general but some of the air pollutants in several large cities especially in Klang Valley, the most densely populated area, are increasing with time and are not always at acceptable levels according to the national ambient air quality standards. This research employed contingent valuation method (CVM) to estimate the willingness to pay of the respondents to avoid the illness episodes due to air pollution. To evaluate the impact of additional information on the willingness to pay (WTP) of the respondents, different sub-samples were presented with contingent valuation scenarios offering different levels of information. One sub-sample was given the cause of ill-health episodes and the policy to be implemented to remedy the cause of the ill-health episodes (context version). Another sub-sample was asked to value the avoidance of episodes of ill-health, but was not given any details of the cause of the episodes nor the policy that would be implemented to remedy the cause of ill-health episodes (non-context version). The study has found that the inclusion of additional information in the presentation of scenarios in contingent valuation exercises significantly influenced WTP for the avoidance of ill-health episodes. The average mean value of WTP of the respondents for the context version was higher than that of the non-context version i.e. RM154 for the context version and RM134 for the non-context version. Since, WTP to avoid the ill-health episodes cannot be shown to be independent of the context in which it is valued, the validity of transferring benefits of avoided ill-health episodes from one country to another must be called into question and the results of the study will not allow decision makers to apply the estimated values for the avoidance of ill-health episodes in the consideration of policies with very different context. IOI press 2006 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/6489/1/Document3.pdf Rafia, Afroz and Hassan, Mohd Nasir and Awang, Muhamad and Ibrahim, Akma (2006) Impact of air pollution on health in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Asian Journal of Water Environment and Pollution, 3 (1). pp. 27-38. ISSN 0972-9860 (P) 1875-8568 (O) http://iospress.metapress.com/content/49xw2pqh80g37g7u/
spellingShingle H Social Sciences (General)
Rafia, Afroz
Hassan, Mohd Nasir
Awang, Muhamad
Ibrahim, Akma
Impact of air pollution on health in Klang Valley, Malaysia
title Impact of air pollution on health in Klang Valley, Malaysia
title_full Impact of air pollution on health in Klang Valley, Malaysia
title_fullStr Impact of air pollution on health in Klang Valley, Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Impact of air pollution on health in Klang Valley, Malaysia
title_short Impact of air pollution on health in Klang Valley, Malaysia
title_sort impact of air pollution on health in klang valley malaysia
topic H Social Sciences (General)
url http://irep.iium.edu.my/6489/1/Document3.pdf
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