Air pollution and sick-leaves - is there a connection? A case study using air pollution data from Oslo

Abstract

In recent years a growing number of studies have been discussing the relationship between air pollution and human health. The evidence in the literature for adverse health effects of several pol-lutants seems convincing. In our article we are concerned with to which extent these health effects in turn induce sick-leaves or other kinds of reduced labour productivity, which is important for as-sessment of air pollution costs. We analyse the association between sick-leaves in a large office in Oslo and the concentration of different air pollutants and find a significant relationship between the concentration of particulate matter and sick-leaves, while the associations with SO2 and NO2 are more ambiguous. Keywords: Air pollution, sick-leaves, logit specification