ABSTRACT

A study of the benefits and costs of controlling emissions of particulate matter smaller than 10 microns (PM10)—a pollutant responsible for a large share of the noncarcinogenic adverse health impacts from air pollution-clearly demonstrates that the Ciudad Juárez’s brick kilns inflict significant harm. Because these kilns do not have smokestacks, over 90% of their PM10 emissions are deposited less than a third of a mile away, a critical problem since most kilns are situated in residential neighborhoods. Thus, the kilns are partly responsible for over a dozen cases of premature mortality and hundreds of cases of respiratory illness each year in that city (see Table 1), damages that are valued at between $20 million and $90 million. By contrast, the annual cost of pollution control programs that would virtually eliminate these impacts is estimated at less than $300,000.