Valuing the benefits of contaminated sites remediation

Remediation of contaminated sites yield to several economic, environmental and health benefits. In this study we mainly focus on the benefits associated reduction in mortality thanks to the environmental remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater in Italy. In order to calculate the benefits of a public program that saves lives we use a methodology relying on the value of statistical life concept, which is a key factor in valuing human health improvement deriving from environmental policy. To obtain a measure of the value of statistical life we have designed a conjoint choice questionnaire to ask people their willingness to pay for a specific reduction in their risk of dying due to toxic substances exposition. In this paper we provide the main methodological issues of designing and pre-testing a survey of this type and a careful description of the main topics of our conjoint choice questionnaire.