Value of life

The life cycle cost of a process is the net total of all expenses incurred over the entire lifetime of a process. The choice of process chemistry can dramatically affect this life cycle cost. A quantitative life cycle cost cannot be estimated with sufficient accuracy to be of practical value. There is benefit, however, in making a qualitative estimate of the life cycle costs of competing chemistries. Implicit in any estimate of life cycle cost is the estimate of risk. One alternative may seem more attractive than another until the risks associated with product liability issues, environmental concerns, and process hazards are given due consideration. Value of life concepts and cost-benefit analyses (CCPS, 1995a, pp. 23-27 and Chapter 8) are useful in predicting and comparing the life cycle costs of alternatives. 

There are various estimates of the value of life, ranging at the high end from about 2 million per life to about 200,000 per life. The choice of value in tliis range depends a great deal on how one subscribes to tlie various etliical bases... 

POL. 13.1. Prigogine, European science and technology for sustainable development, in respect to the values of life, Presidenza Italiana CE, 1990. 

V. Monetary Value of Life Expectancy Increase from Canadian Pharmaceutical Spending... 

Increase in Hfe expectancy Value of life expectancy gains (bfllions of CDN 2004)... 

Landefeld JS, Seskin EP. The economic value of life linking theory to practice. Am J Public Health 1982 72 555-65. 

A man who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life. ... 

Ibid., pp. 12-13. Daly adds, "In the limit, all other species become cultivated natural capital, bred, managed at the smaller population size to make more room for humans and their furniture. Instrumental values such as redundancy, resiliency, stability, sustainability, would be sacrificed, along with the intrinsic value of life enjoyment by sentient human species, in the interests of efficiency defined as anything that increases the human scale (p. 13). 

Kellert, S.R. (1996). The values of life. Biological diversity and human society. Washington, D.C Island Press/Sheanvater Books. 

A number of reviews of the value per statistical life in the literature have been carried out see, for example, Fisher et al. (1989), Jones-Lee (1996), Miller (1990) andViscusi (1992,1993). In the survey by Viscusi (1992,1993), the value per statistical life varies between US 0.6 million and US 16.2 million in the surveyed labour market analyses of wage-risk trade-offs, between US 0.07 million and US 4.0 million in the studies of consumer markets, and between US 0.1 million and US 15.6 million in the CV studies (in December 1990 dollars). Viscusi (1992) noted that for labour market studies of wage-risk trade-offs most of the reasonable estimates of the value of life are clustered in the US 3 to US 7 million range (Viscusi, 1992, p. 73). He also noted that this estimate conforms quite well with the results of the large-scale CV studies, whereas the results of the studies of consumer... 

Blomquist, G. (1979). Value of life savings implications of consumption activity. Journal of Political Economy, 87,540-58. 

Jones-Lee, M. W. (1976). The Value of Life An Economic Analysis. Martin Robertson, London. 

Miller, T. R. (1990). The plausihle range for the value of life red herrings among the mackerel. Journal of Forensic Economics, 3,17-40. 

For most economists who specialize in public policy issues, these arguments appear decisive. They have provided the basis for using value of life estimates in a wide variety of circumstances, while the views of those who oppose these procedures have been marginalized and discredited. Nonetheless there remain several unresolved ethical and practical problems with assigning a dollar value to life I will address these in the following chapter. 

The value of life (measured in thousands of 1977 dollars) in column 5 is drawn from the means reported in column 2 and calculated on the assumptions that all risks are fatal risks and that they are assumed to apply in the current year. 

Change in risk Mean bid WTP Questions Median bid Number of zero/nonbids Value of life (thousands)... 

In principle we could look to any market in which some choices are safer than others to get a measurement of the value of safety, and therefore the value of life. Since any such market wUl do, we will begin with various consumer studies before taking on the main concern of this book, the market for occupational safety and health. 

The risk of death and the value of life hedonic analysis of dangerous work... 

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