A 2002 analysis documented $54.9 billion in annual costs of environmentally mediated diseases in US children. However, few important changes in federal policy have been implemented to prevent exposures to toxic chemicals. We therefore updated and expanded the previous analysis and found that the costs of lead poisoning, prenatal methylmercury exposure, childhood cancer, asthma, intellectual disability, autism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were $76.6 billion in 2008. To prevent further increases in these costs, efforts are needed to institute premarket testing of new chemicals; conduct toxicity testing on chemicals already in use; reduce lead-based paint hazards; and curb mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants.

In 2002 Philip Landrigan and colleagues estimated the annual costs for four chronic childhood conditions-lead poisoning, childhood cancer, developmental disabilities, and asthma-that could be attributed to environmental factors. The authors found that these costs totaled $54.9 billion in 1997 dollars, or 2.8 percent of US health care costs in 1997.1 The intent of this analysis was to inform decisions by policy makers to allocate sufficient resources toward prevention of exposures to lead, methylmercury (a form of mercury that has been found to be harmful to the developing brain), certain pesticides, and outdoor air pollutants that are hazardous […]