[ RadSafe ] Dollars per life saved

[Brennan, Mike (DOH)]

I agree that this kind of analysis is valuable, but all relevant factors
need to be included.  For example, it is appropriate to include
installation cost, though in many cases it is negligible.  It is also
appropriate to include as a savings both the hospital costs avoided in
the "avoidable injuries", and property damages avoided in fires detected
early, although both of those may be hard to quantify.  

I am not saying that mandating CO detectors is the most important use of
public health resources, but we have two in our house, because I believe
that the low cost of having them versus the extremely high cost of a low
probability event (a situation where the warning saves the lives of my
wife, son, and myself) makes them a smart buy. 

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Joel C.
Sent: Monday, November 15, 2010 12:56 PM
To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Dollars per life saved

This value, dollars per life saved, used to be of interest in rad safety
regulations.  Today, I came across a new requirement in California for
carbon monoxide detectors in all homes.  (Hold your comments on our
screwed up state.)  The state Air Resources Board estimates 30 to 40
"avoidable deaths" per year from CO overexposure.  Someone estimated the
costs of the requirement by multiplying the cost of a detector (about 20
bucks) with the number of households in the state, and came up with $260
million.  That doesn't include installation and is probably low.  In any
event, the dollars per life saved comes out to a minimum of $6.5
million.  I pass that on without comment.


Joel 
joelc at alum.wpi.edu

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