Fighting Fire with Fire(fighting Foam): The Long Run Effects of PFAS Use at U.S. Military Installations
December 2024
Working Paper Number:
CES-24-72
Abstract
Tens of millions of people in the U.S. may be exposed to drinking water contaminated with perand poly-fluoroalkyl chemicals (PFAS). We provide the first estimates of long-run economic costs from a major, early PFAS source: fire-fighting foam. We combine the timing of its adoption with variation in the presence of fire training areas at U.S. military installations in the 1970s to estimate exposure effects for millions of individuals using natality records and restricted administrative data. We document diminished birthweights, college attendance, and earnings, illustrating a pollution externality from military training and unregulated chemicals as a determinant of economic opportunity.
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