The worsening in air condition from fine and ultrafine dust pollution has caused an economic toll over 4 trillion won ($3.53 billion) in South Korea last year, according to a study.

The Hyundai Research Institute estimated about 4.02 trillion won in losses, tantamount to 0.2 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, from disruption in business and economic activities due to poor air condition. The institute polled 1,008 adults nationwide to come up with the estimation.

The private think tank projected a daily loss of about 158 billion won from failed outdoor or marketing activities due to frequent fine dust alerts issued last year. The institute measured the degree of such constraints by industry and converted the impairment into GDP numbers by considering the size of affected employees in each industry. The number of days with fine dust alerts issued last year averaged 25.4 days.

The institute said fine dust impaired an average of 6.7 percent of production activities. By industry, the agricultural, forest and fisheries sector was the most impaired with 8.4 percent, followed by other service industries with 7.3 percent, electricity, sewage and construction industries with 7.2 percent, wholesale and retail industries with 5.6 percent and mining and manufacturing industries with 4.5 percent.

The institute also said each household spent 21,260 won per month buying fine dust masks, which represent 0.83 percent of 2.56 million.

By Kim Yeon-joo and Minu Kim

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