The EPA and many other agencies try to quantify the value of life (cost of death). Without that estimate, they would be unable to decide the appropriate level of pollution to allow.
The report used 6.3 million USD for a US life (the EPA's VSL, value of a statistical life, p. 287). They want to learn more about the feedback between natural resources and health, so that they can price natural resources that economists are normally unable to value.
