Impact of Occupational Exposure to Chemicals in Life Cycle Assessment: A Novel Characterization Model Based on Measured Concentrations and Labor Hours

Abstract

According to Lim et al., based on World Health Organization (WHO) data, hazardous chemicals in the workplace are responsible for over 370,000 premature deaths annually. Despite these high figures, life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) does not yet include a fully operational method to consider occupational impacts in its scope over the entire supply chain. This paper describes a novel approach to account for occupational exposure to chemicals by inhalation in LCA. It combines labor statistics and measured occupational concentrations of chemicals from the OSHA database to calculate operational LCIA characterization factors (i.e., intakes per hour worked and impact intensities for 19,069 organic chemical/sector combinations with confidence intervals across the entire U.S. manufacturing industry). For the seven chemicals that most contribute to the global impact, measured workplace concentrations range between 5 × 10(-4) and 3 × 10(3) mg/m(3). Carcinogenic impacts range over 4 orders of magnitude, from 1.3 × 10(-8) and up to 3.4 × 10(-4) DALY per blue-collar worker labor hour. The innovative approach set out in this paper assesses health impacts from occupational exposure to chemicals with population exposure to outdoor emissions, making it possible to integrate occupational exposure within LCIA. It broadens the LCIA scope to analyze hotspots and avoid impact shifting.

Life cycle based alternatives assessment (LCAA) for chemical substitution

“…Using generic chemical supply chain and product life cycle worker impacts across plasticizers is another limitation, where we recommend to use product and chemicalspecific supply chain information in cases where worker impacts dominate overall impact profiles. Further, among our considered target chemical and screened alternatives, only DEHP and DBP are included in the list of 235 organic substances contributing to worker impacts, 41 whereas no measured workplace concentrations for the other alternatives are currently available, leading to potential bias.…”

“…40 The assessment of supply chain worker exposure relies on measured workplace concentrations either from first hand data when available for the production of target chemical and alternatives, or from existing databases combined with life cycle input-output data to cover the entire supply chain. 41,42 Tier 3: Optional assessment of product life cycle impacts…”

Advancements in Life Cycle Human Exposure and Toxicity Characterization

“…Many countries mandate workplace exposure monitoring, control, and enforcement by governmental agencies, with regional differences. A recently proposed framework to assess impacts on workers exposed along the entire supply chain provides a database to track sector-specific, empirically observed personal airborne chemical concentrations along with associated sector-specific labor hours (Kijko et al. 2015, 2016).…”

“…LCIA has also mostly excluded impacts on workers in the supply chain (Demou et al. 2009; Kijko et al. 2015).…”

Design Support for VOC Control in SMEs by Simulation-Based Life-Cycle Engineering Part 2: Case Study of Metal Cleaning Process

“…The mechanism of release and associated impacts on occupational health have been examined in detail by Kikuchi et al (2012), and the assessment methodology for such open-system processes has been discussed by Hellweg et al (2009) and Kikuchi and Hirao (2008). The inclusion of indoor exposure in LCA has been achieved by indoor models compiling available statistics (Kijko et al, 2015). As well as the evaluation of global-scale environmental impacts by LCA, the local chemical risk should be carefully evaluated by RA in process improvement (Kikuchi and Hirao, 2009).…”