It is a tiny figure when compared with statistical life values commonly employed in the OECD countries. It clearly makes little sense to talk about abatement costs in a general way. To reflect the overlap between TSP and SO2 as sources of fine particulates, we provide abatement cost evidence for both pollutants in Figure 28. Large plants are a major source of air pollution in Beijing, so the MAC numbers for large facilities are particularly interesting. We begin with the more expensive option, SO2 abatement.
Costs are substantially less for large facilities.
MAC estimates for our other four cities differ somewhat, but have the same order of magnitude. We should stress that this estimated rate of return, while clearly attractive, is extremely conservative as a guide to the lifesaving value of air pollution abatement in Beijing. We believe that the opportunities for such high returns may be quite rare in China's urban health sector. We conclude that it would make extremely good economic sense to tighten air pollution control in Beijing. Our abatement cost estimates show that it would also be sensible to focus on particulate emissions from large facilities.