Projected Health Benefits of California's Plan to Decarbonize

Someone's finally taking a stab at quantifying health benefits of going green. It would be nice to see other states start including health savings estimates in future budgetary planning documents (not just sustainability plans).

The state of California estimates savings of $1.5B to $2.4B in healthcare spending by reducing carbon offsets.

More info found on page 28 of this PDF report released today during a webcast of the California Air Resources Board meeting (hat tip to Alexis Madrigal of Wired.com for the link and liveblogging "How California Plans to Radically Decarbonize."

Public Health Benefits

Preliminary Estimates for 2020

Total Economic valuation: $1.5 billion to $2.4 billion

Avoided minor restricted activity days: 330,000

Avoided work loss days: 57,000

Avoided acute bronchitis: 780

Avoided asthma-related & other lower respiratory symptoms: 9,400

Avoided hospitalizations due to cardiovascular causes: 130

Avoided hospitalizations due to respiratory causes: 71

Avoided premature deaths: 340

*Based on preliminary estimates of reduced fuel use from measures