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EPA
to Stop Analysis Devaluing Worth of Elderly
Criticism
Targeted Pollution Methodology
By
Dennis O'Brien, Baltimore Sun
May 8, 2003
BALTIMORE -
After months of criticism, federal regulators announced Wednesday that the
life of a senior citizen is indeed worth as much as anyone else's.
At a meeting in Baltimore, the Environmental Protection Agency's chief
said the agency will stop the controversial practice of placing a lower
dollar value on the lives of people over 70 when it calculates the cost
and benefits of legislation before Congress.
Derisively known as the "senior death discount," the policy had
become a lightning rod for critics who argued that the Bush administration
used it as a tool to reduce the estimated benefits of cleaning up the
nation's air.
EPA Administrator Christie Whitman announced the change unexpectedly to a
group gathered at the University of Maryland School of Nursing for the
agency's sixth and final listening session for older Americans nationwide.
The disputed formula estimated the worth of the elderly at 37 percent less
than younger people, or $2.3 million vs. $3.7 million. The age-adjusted
analysis was used to explain the benefits of the Bush administration's
"Clear Skies" legislation to Congress.
Whitman said Wednesday that the methodology was never reviewed by EPA
scientific experts but came directly from the White House Office of
Management and Budget.
"That particular form of analysis has been discontinued," she
said.
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