Tracking Toxicants: Toward a Life Cycle Aware Risk Assessment

Kuczenski, Brandon; Geyer, Roland; Boughton, Bob

doi:10.1021/es101467z

Cited by 19 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…A product/service-based life cycle perspective can also be applied in RA. , This implies that the purpose of RA does not remain restricted to one central substance or site, but the assessment considers emissions of one or several substances from different sources and at different locations throughout different life cycle stages of a product or service. Shih and Ma, for instance, investigated human health risks associated with heavy metal release during bottom ash treatment, reuse of bottom ash in pavement, and disposal of bottom ash in a landfill (after reuse in pavement or directly after ash treatment).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of Environmental Assessment Case Studies Blending Elements of Risk Assessment and Life Cycle Assessment

Harder

Holmquist

Molander

et al. 2015

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Risk assessment (RA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) are two analytical tools used to support decision making in environmental management. This study reviewed 30 environmental assessment case studies that claimed an integration, combination, hybridization, or complementary use of RA and LCA. The focus of the analysis was on how the respective case studies evaluated emissions of chemical pollutants and pathogens. The analysis revealed three clusters of similar case studies. Yet, there seemed to be little consensus as to what should be referred to as RA and LCA, and when to speak of combination, integration, hybridization, or complementary use of RA and LCA. This paper provides clear recommendations toward a more stringent and consistent use of terminology. Blending elements of RA and LCA offers multifaceted opportunities to adapt a given environmental assessment case study to a specific decision making context, but also requires awareness of several implications and potential pitfalls, of which six are discussed in this paper. To facilitate a better understanding and more transparent communication of the nature of a given case study, this paper proposes a "design space" (i.e., identification framework) for environmental assessment case studies blending elements of RA and LCA. Thinking in terms of a common design space, we postulate, can increase clarity and transparency when communicating the design and results of a given assessment together with its potential strengths and weaknesses.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of Environmental Assessment Case Studies Blending Elements of Risk Assessment and Life Cycle Assessment

Harder

Holmquist

Molander

et al. 2015

Environ. Sci. Technol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The third school, referred to here as 'RA for LC-hotspots', starts from the opposite idea of including risks in a product life cycle. There are many proposals on this including life cycle risk assessment and life cycle based RA 68,[75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83] . The basic idea is to first perform a full LCA and then do an RA for the dominant chemicals identified as part of the LCA (LC-hotspots).…”

Section: Possibilities and Limitations Of Combining And Integratingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Setting the stage for debating the roles of risk assessment and life-cycle assessment of engineered nanomaterials

et al. 2017

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Although technological and environmental benefits are important stimuli for nanotechnology development, these technologies have been contested from an environmental point of view. The steady growth of applications of engineered nanomaterials has heated up the debate on quantifying the environmental repercussions. The two main scientific methods to address these environmental repercussions are risk assessment and life-cycle assessment. The strengths and weaknesses of each of these methods, and the relation between them, have been a topic of debate in the world of traditional chemistry for over two decades. Here we review recent developments in this debate in general and for the emerging field of nanomaterials specifically. We discuss the pros and cons of four schools of thought for combining and integrating risk assessment and life-cycle assessment and conclude with a plea for action.

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“…For greater comprehensiveness, 'life-cycle aware' risk assessment, often referred as life cycle risk assessment (LCRA), has been suggested [37][38][39][40][41][42]. With this approach, the boundary of risk assessment is expanded to include whole life cycle of a product.…”

Section: Life-cycle Qramentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consideration of all kinds of emissions and many types of environmental impacts is one of the strengths of LCA [10]. This broader perspective of LCA enhances the ability to evaluate impacts more comprehensively and helps to detect problem shifting which could be of concern when only limited emissions or/and impacts are considered, which often is the case of QRA [11][12][13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards More Holistic Environmental Impact Assessment: Hybridisation of Life Cycle Assessment and Quantitative Risk Assessment

2015

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Global and local environmental impacts of products or services can sometimes be in conflict with one another. Therefore, the importance of considering both impacts in environmental management must be recognised. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is useful in evaluating global impacts while quantitative risk assessment (QRA) is effective in local impact assessments. The benefits of combining LCA and QRA in this regard have been recognised. Advantages and disadvantages of different hybridisation approaches were critically examined in this paper. There seems to be no single best approach and a method needs to be carefully selected depending on the type of application.

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Tracking Toxicants: Toward a Life Cycle Aware Risk Assessment

Cited by 19 publications

References 25 publications

Review of Environmental Assessment Case Studies Blending Elements of Risk Assessment and Life Cycle Assessment

Review of Environmental Assessment Case Studies Blending Elements of Risk Assessment and Life Cycle Assessment

Setting the stage for debating the roles of risk assessment and life-cycle assessment of engineered nanomaterials

Towards More Holistic Environmental Impact Assessment: Hybridisation of Life Cycle Assessment and Quantitative Risk Assessment

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