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Air Pollution Hurts You & Your Wallet

By Jeremy Rosenberg
March 4, 2010
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A RAND study out this week calculates that poor local air quality results in an average annual cost in the nine-figure range at Southern California hospitals.

RAND researchers studied a two-year period from 2005-2007 and concluded that the combined Calif. hospital bill due to particulates and other air woes was $193 million.

Hospitalizations for acute bronchitis, pneumonia, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease cost one-third of the overall bill, according to RAND's press release.

The full study is available as a .pdf download here. Also online: The California Air Pollution Mapping Tool.

This image was taken by flickr user AdamCohn. It was used under the Creative Commons License.

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