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PAD-82-21 1 (1981-11-09)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabcsf0001 and id is 1 raw text is: UNITED STATES GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE WASHINGTON, D.C. 20548 RELEASED PROGRAM ANALYSIS DIVISION fs e e B-20658,MpIRCTED -j No oberf p0~ erTeei%'t B.C..8 , - NOVEMBER 9, 1981 The Honorable Thomas F. Eagleton I [I United States Senate 116998 Dear Senator Eagleton: Subject: Approaches Toward Valuation of Human Life By Certain Federal Agencies (PAD-82-21) In your letter of June 19, 1981, you requested that the General Accounting Office conduct a survey of Federal agencies responsible for public health and safety in order to ascertain whether they assign a specific dollar valuation to human life and safety in analyzing program and regulation costs and benefits. You also requested the specific dollar amounts currently assigned for preventing accidents, epidemics, deaths, injuries, etc., and whether discounting to present value is used. As you suggested in your letter and as we agreed with your. office, we did not survey all Federal agencies, but have con- tacted those we regard as the major safety and health agencies: the Center for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administra- tion, both of the Department of Health and Human Services; the Department of Agricultuixe; the Environmental Protection Agency; the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Mine Safety and Health Administration of the Department of Labor; the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; the Federal -Aviation Administration and +he National Highway Transportation Safety Administration of the Dep.art- ment of Transportation; and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Of these, we found that only Department of Transportation agencies routinely use explicit valuations of safety o-r health benefits in their analyses, although other agencies have occasionally done the same in the past. In certain other cases, implicit values are as- signed when comparisons are made between budgetary outlays and re- duced incidence of fatality, injury, or illness. RESULTS OF OUR SURVEY OF BENEFIT-COST ANALYSIS BY GOVERNMENT AGENCIES Our survey of a number of Government agencies with responsi- bility for health and safety regulation indicates that they have little in common in how they assign dollar values to premature death, injury, or illness. Our survey revealed that while most (972116)

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