Citation

MacLennan C. Public Health Rep. (1974) 1987; 102(6): 636-637.

Affiliation

Michigan Technological University

Copyright

(Copyright © 1987, Association of Schools of Public Health)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Discussion of the costs of injury leads almost immediately to the problems of determining these costs, a subject of intense political debate in recent years. Generally, this debate has been conducted in the language of economics, providing a narrow view of the social consequences of loss due to injury. This paper addresses the human loss resulting from injury and suggests strategies for identifying the social consequences of injury in the current climate of cost-benefit decision making.

Unmeasured costs are usually assumed to be unmeasurable and are relegated to the domain of "pain and suffering." Once various losses due to injury are labeled unmeasurable, discussion of them is narrowed to a focus based on economic valuation. Within this context, social loss from injury is equated with economic loss and translated into dollars.

In estimating injury costs, the largest component is attributed to wage loss or other symbols used to identify the value of life. The usefulness of cost estimates diminishes as the limitations for placing market values on the loss of life deepen the separation between social reality and economic value.