Link between Better Air Quality and Reduction in Healthcare Costs

Mr Leon Perera asked the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources whether the Ministry will consider conducting a study to quantify the savings in healthcare costs that can be obtained from various possible levels of incremental improvements in air quality in the short, mid and long term.

There have been several studies estimating costs associated with air pollution. The World Bank and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation published a study in 2016 which estimated the economic costs attributable to air pollution across various countries. Locally, a study was published in 2013 by Prof Euston Quah and Assoc Prof Chia Wai-Mun to estimate the economic cost of particulate air pollution (PM10) on public health in Singapore.

While the exact figures may differ as they depend on the assumptions and methodologies in each study, it is clear that air pollution has a direct impact on public health. To address this public health concern, my Ministry included in the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint 2015 a set of Air Quality Targets which we aim to achieve by 2020. These standards are based on the World Health Organization's (WHO's) Air Quality Guidelines.

To date, we have already initiated several measures to reduce the emission of pollutants. We have recently tightened the emission standards for industries. We have also introduced measures to manage the emissions from vehicles. These include stricter standards for fuel quality and emissions standards for new vehicles, as well as incentive schemes to encourage the purchase of new and cleaner vehicle models. We will continue to review these measures as we work towards our 2020 Air Quality Targets.

I thank the Senior Minister of State for the answer. Going forward, when the Government presents measures in the Budget or through other platforms in relation to air quality, will the Government also consider providing an estimate of the positive impact on healthcare costs, MediShield Life and other components of healthcare costs, so that a better assessment can be made about the investments that we are putting into air quality and the likely savings that may result in healthcare costs on the other side of the equation?

I thank the Member for his supplementary question. As I have noted, we have many local and international studies that seek to establish the impact of air pollution on health as well as healthcare costs. Depending on the methodologies and the assumptions used, the figures may vary. What we have done to inform policy review and formulation is to gather these various studies and have a holistic picture of the economic costs to health and healthcare and then determine our policies.

As I have said, we have set air quality targets based on WHO Air Quality Guidelines in our Sustainable Singapore Blueprint (SSB) 2015. WHO has established a set of air quality guidelines where health risk is largely reduced because every reduction obviously matters. WHO also acknowledges that when we set guidelines, we have to take into account local constraints, such as mitigation costs, for instance, accessibility, affordability and availability of the technologies.

Hence, when we regularly review our policies as well as develop new policies in order to reduce air pollution and improve air quality, we take these into account as part of the cost-benefit analysis. But as I said, the figures can vary significantly and we have to look at it holistically.