The Cost Per Life-Saved in the Prohibition of Chlordane in Japan--An Estimate Based on Risk Assessment Integrating the Cancer and the Noncancer. Toshihiro Oka, Dept. of Economics, Fukui Prefectural University, Matsuoka-cho, Yoshida-gun, Fukui 910-11, Japan; Masashi Gamo, Dept. of Urban Engineering, University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113, Japan; and Junko Nakanishi, Inst. of Environmental Science and Technology, Yokohama National University, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240, Japan
Use of chlordane as pesticide for termite (termiticide) was prohibited in Japan in 1986, owing to its carcinogenicity and accumulation in fish. As a substitute for it, chlorpyrifos, an organophosphorus, has come to be used. The cost per life-saved of the regulation is estimated in this paper, by setting the net increase of cost due to the switch of termiticides against the net risk reduction expressed in terms of lives saved. The risk from noncancer toxicity of chlorpyrifos is compared directly with the cancer risk of chlordane by the method developed in another paper of ours. The obtained estimate of the cost per life-saved is 550 million yen. However, the regulation has improved the distribution of risk, in the sense that it has reduced the risk to zero for the public, who have no choice but to bear the risk; the regulation has changed a "nonoptional public bad" to a "private bad." The cost per life-saved estimate can also be used as data to determine the reference value for the cost-effectiveness approach to risk management.