TABLE 2.

—Estimated Annual Economic Impacts of Contaminant-Related Health Effects in Indoor Work Environments in the United States, and Potential Benefits of Improved Environments

	Annual Economic Impacts
Contaminant–Related Health Effect	Health Care Costs of Effects dueto Work or Nonwork Exposuresa	Costs From Absence Due to Illness and From Other Performance Losses due to Work or Nonwork Exposuresa	Estimated Economic Consequence for Indoor Workforce due to Work or Nonwork Exposuresa,b	Estimated Economic Benefits Possible From Improved Indoor Work Environmentsb,c
Communicable respiratory infections: building-influenced, occupant sources (e.g., influenza, common cold, tuberculosis)	$10 billion in health care costs	$19 billion in absence from work; $3 billion from reduced performance at work	$32 billion	$3 to $4 billion (estimate has substantial uncertainty)
Asthma, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, and allergic disease, building related	Asthma, $2.6–$2.8 billion; allergic rhinitis, $580 million; other, not estimated	Asthma, $340 million; allergic rhinitis, $377 million; other, not estimated	$3.9–$4.1 billion	$200 to $600 million (estimate has substantial uncertainty)
Nonspecific building-related symptoms (acute effects of indoor exposures or conditions, including so-called sick building syndrome)	Unknown (effects from work exposures only)	$20–$70 billion (effects from work exposures only)	$20–$70 billion (effects from work exposures only)	$4–$70 billion (estimate has substantial uncertainty)
Respiratory infections: building sources (Legionnaires’ disease, Pontiac fever, fungal infections)	Legionnaires’ disease: $26–$40 million in health care costs; Pontiac fever: minimal health care costs; fungal infections: unknown costs	Legionnaires’ disease: $5–$8 million in absence from work; Pontiac fever: unknown absence costs (1 week/case); fungal infections: unknown costs	Greater than $30–$50 million	Tens of millions of dollars
Health effects of environmental tobacco smoke	$30–$140 million in health care costs for cardiovascular disease and lung cancer (effects from work exposures only)	Costs of absence from work and other performance losses not estimated	$30–$140 million (costs of absence from work and other performance losses not estimated; effects from work exposures only)	$30–$140 million (costs of absence from work and other performance losses not estimated)

Note. Sources for and details on effect estimates are available from the authors and as a supplement to the on-line version of this article.

^aEstimates in this column that reflect only the effects of work-related exposures are identified.

^bEstimated economic consequence includes estimated health care costs, value of absence from work, and value of productivity decreases at work when health effect is experienced. All estimates exclude any monetary equivalent for deaths.83^{(”other comments“)}

^cEstimated benefits do not reflect costs of research or of necessary indoor environmental improvements.