Conceptual Framework To Extend Life Cycle Assessment Using Near-Field Human Exposure Modeling and High-Throughput Tools for Chemicals

Abstract

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a decision-making tool that accounts for multiple impacts across the life cycle of a product or service. This paper presents a conceptual framework to integrate human health impact assessment with risk screening approaches to extend LCA to include near-field chemical sources (e.g., those originating from consumer products and building materials) that have traditionally been excluded from LCA. A new generation of rapid human exposure modeling and high-throughput toxicity testing is transforming chemical risk prioritization and provides an opportunity for integration of screening-level risk assessment (RA) with LCA. The combined LCA and RA approach considers environmental impacts of products alongside risks to human health, which is consistent with regulatory frameworks addressing RA within a sustainability mindset. A case study is presented to juxtapose LCA and risk screening approaches for a chemical used in a consumer product. The case study demonstrates how these new risk screening tools can be used to inform toxicity impact estimates in LCA and highlights needs for future research. The framework provides a basis for developing tools and methods to support decision making on the use of chemicals in products.

High-throughput migration modelling for estimating exposure to chemicals in food packaging in screening and prioritization tools

“…To address this inconsistency, there are recent modelling efforts to make LCA more comprehensive and include exposure to chemicals in products (Shin et al 2012;Jolliet et al 2015a;Fantke et al 2016;Ernstoff et al 2016;Csiszar et al 2016b;Huang et al 2017a), although LCA-compatible models do not yet exist to estimate exposure through food packaging.…”

Comparative, collaborative, and integrative risk governance for emerging technologies

“…Indeed, the U.S. has followed this framework for numerous comparative risk applications, including regulation of particulate matter, nuclear waste, and food safety. Uncertainty is particularly large when assessing the life cycles of the vast majority of chemical compounds (Csiszar et al 2016;Malloy et al 2016;Seager and Linkov 2008). Since risk is a function of both hazard and exposure, much of the uncertainty associated with new chemicals entering the marketplace is due to the paucity of reliable information regarding the toxicity, and even greater uncertainty about the frequency and extent of an individual's contact with a specific compound given typical utilizations of that chemical (e.g., cosmetics, cleaning products, etc.)…”

Air Pollution Monitoring Changes to Accompany the Transition from a Control to a Systems Focus

“…In this instance, far-field scenarios account for several orders of magnitude of less of the predicted dose compared to near-field scenarios. The doses were modeled using SHEDS-HT [17] from data in Chin et al [16] and Csiszar et al [18]. …”

“…A case study by Csiszar et al [18] to estimate potential exposures to p-DCB found that adding risk-based screening and aggregate exposure predictions to sustainability tools such as LCA can be used to compare product ingredients to help optimize formulations based on human toxicity, which can be considered along with other life cycle impacts (e.g., climate change, resource depletion, ecotoxicity, etc.). While none of the case studies presented here calculated uncertainty, similar calculations may include uncertainty and variability, e.g., seasonal, geographic and population variability.…”