MO090
A tool to integrate consumer and environmental exposure in life cycle impact assessment
O. Jolliet, University of Michigan; L. Huang, University of Michigan / Dept of Environmental Health Sciences; P. Fantke, Technical University of Denmark / Quantitative Sustainability Assessment Division
Direct exposure of consumers to chemical ingredients within our daily products is an important pathway that often dominates environmental performance profiles of these consumer products, but has been currently left aside in LCIA toxicity characterization. The aim of the present study is to update and extend the existing framework to consistently incorporate consumer exposure pathways in way fully compatible with existing LCIA toxicity characterization methods, and to illustrate it via a case study of plasticizer chemicals in building materials. We developed a general a framework and a tool that extends the toxicity assessment to the near-field and consumer exposure assessment and combines it consistently with the USEtox far-field environmental exposures: The chemical mass per functional unit in the consumer product is multiplied by the product intake fraction (PiF) to yields the total exposure expressed. The PiF represents the fraction of the chemical in products that is taken in by the consumer. It is determined by coupling fate processes in consumer environments (near-field) with existing environmental compartments and processes (far-field), via a consistent and mass balance-based set of transfer fractions. The developed tool already enables to calculate
characterization factors for 22 types of building products, 8 types of personal care products, 7 contact food materials and multiple cleaning product-chemical
combinations. The case study of DEHP plasticizer in a vinyl flooring shows that starting from a mass of DEHP in products of 82 kg, 0.15 kg will be taken in, mostly by the household users via dust ingestion as a dominant pathway. This leads to intake doses of 0.14 mg/kgbody/d for an adult and 0.5 mg/kgbody/d for a 3 years old child. Performing a full LCA of the vinyl flooring shows that the 16% of DEHP plasticizer in flooring are associated with dominant shares of impact on human health (78%) and on aquatic ecosystem (95%), whereas PVC is the dominant contributor to climate change impacts (59%). This case study illustrates well the importance to account for consumer exposure to chemical in product during their use. Final outcome is a consistent and quantitative framework and directly applicable tool to determine factors based on scientific consensus for assessing life cycle exposure and toxicity impacts of chemicals in LCIA, as an input to the LCIA guidance efforts of the Life Cycle Initiative.
MO091
Towards the integration of an Agent-based Model into LCA framework to assess dynamic indoor air quality
A. Micolier, University of Bordeaux / The Life Cycle Group CyVi; P. Loubet, University of Bordeaux / ISM CyVi; F. Taillandier, University of Bordeaux / I2M GCE; G. Sonnemann, University of Bordeaux / ISM CyVi
The construction sector, representing 44% of the total final energy consumption in Europe, is recognized as a major hotspot of resource use and environmental impacts. Thus, strong efforts are made to encourage the design of environmentally friendly buildings. However, the airtightness of low energy buildings has created particularly confined and polluted indoors. Indoor pollution has been raised as a major public health issue since we spend on average 80% of our time in closed spaces. Designing sustainable buildings with good indoor air quality is even more challenging since this latter is strongly influenced by occupant’s lifestyle and behavior. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a relevant methodology to account for impacts from indoor air while avoiding potential burden shifting from the life cycle of energy or materials used. Nevertheless, the current use of LCA still faces scientific obstacles such as: (a) the inclusion of the dynamical effects of indoor pollution on human health and (b) the consideration of the behavior of the occupants. In order to address these concerns, a model of autonomous agent has been developed structured around (i) an agent-based model Li-BIM (Live in BIM) which explicitly represents human behavior, (ii) a physical model to capture the building thermal behavior, (iii) the numerical representation of the building (BIM) and (iv) an innovative indoor air quality model Be-BIM (Breathe in BIM). Li-BIM is an operational model which simulates the behavior of the occupants based on an evolved occupational cognitive and social framework. Be-BIM is currently being developed as a dynamic and localized fate model sensitive to users’ behavior and the related dynamic of air emissions. Therefore, Be-BIM will (i) generate the inventory data for dynamic pollutant emissions and (ii) assess the local impacts from air emissions. Expected outcomes of our integrated model include
characterization factors for human toxicity due to indoor air which are dynamic and spatially differentiated at the scale of the building. Eventually, our model will allow the comparison of life cycle impacts of different building scenarios with a specific focus on indoor air quality suited for residential dwellings.
MO093
Adding the resource dimension to the WULCA framework on assessing freshwater use in LCA
C. Pradinaud, IRSTEA Montpellier / ITAP ELSA; S. Northey, Monash University; B.M. Amor, Universite de Sherbrooke / Département de génie civil; J.C. Bare, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency / National Risk Management Research Laboratory; L. Benini, European Environment Agency; M. Berger, Technische Universitaet Berlin / Chair of Sustaiable Engineering - Office Z1; A. Boulay, CIRAIG - École Polytechnique de Montréal / Chemical engineering department; A.D. Henderson, Noblis Inc / Environmental Science; G. Junqua, Ecole des Mines dAlès / LGEI; M.J. Lathuilliere, University of British Columbia / IRES; M. Margni, CIRAIG - École Polytechnique de Montréal / Mathematical and Industrial engineering; M. MOTOSHITA, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Sci. and; B. Niblick, U.S. Environmental Proctection Agency / Life Cycle and Decision Support Branch; S. Payen, AgResearch; S. Pfister, ETH Zurich; P. Quinteiro, University of Aveiro / Department of Environment and Planning; T. Sonderegger, ETH Zurich; R.K. Rosenbaum, National Research Institute of Science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture - Irstea / UMR ITAP
Effective management of freshwater resources is recognized as being vital. At present, existing LCIA methods for water use do not entirely reflect the state of such a vital resource remaining for future generations. Thus, the objectives of this paper are to (1) identify how freshwater resources can be defined as an entity to protect within the Area of Protection (AoP) natural resources, (2) describe the impact pathways affecting this resource, and (3) propose a characterization framework to assess the impacts from the identified impact pathways. Freshwater resource has a particular status in LCA resource modeling. First, it exists in the form of three types of resources: flow, fund, or stock. Then, in addition to being a resource for human economic activities (e.g. hydropower), it is above all a non-substitutable support for life that can be affected by both consumption (source function) and pollution (sink function). Therefore, both types of elementary flows (emissions and water consumption) should be linked to a damage indicator for
freshwater as a resource. In order to clearly define what is to be protected, the freshwater resource is put in perspective through the lens of three safeguard subjects. Considering the current scope of the AoP natural resources, the complex nature of freshwater resources and the dimension of freshwater to safeguard, a definition of freshwater resource is proposed. Also, a wide range of possible impact pathways to freshwater resources is identified, establishing the link between different inventories (water elementary flows, emissions and land use) and their potential to cause freshwater depletion or pollution in the long-term. The concept of recovery period is used to operationalize this framework: when the recovery period lasts longer than a given period of time, impacts are considered as being irreversible and fall into the concern of freshwater resources protection (i.e. affecting future generations). The study shows that it seems relevant to include this concept in the impact assessment stage in order to discriminate the long-term from the short-term impacts, as some dynamic fate models already do. Recommendations are also given for freshwater resource impact indicator(s). Therefore, such an indicator would allow LCIA to capture potential long-term impacts that could transparently advise decision makers about potential safe water supply issues in the future.
MO094
Considering water and soil conservation works in Life Cycle Assessment: focus on contour ridges and erosion impacts
M. Jouini, Montpellier SupAgro / Département de génie rural; R. Ciampalini, IRD, UMR LISAH; S. Follain, Montpellier SupAgro, UMR LISAH; J. Burte, CIRAD / UMR GEAU; N. Benaissa, National Agronomic Institute of Tunisia / Science de la production végétale; C. Sinfort, ITAP, Irstea, Montpellier SupAgro, Univ Montpellier / ELSA Research group and ELSA-PACT Industrial Chair
Soil is a rare natural resource and it is at the center of the main issues in agronomy, environment and land use planning. At global level, erosion is one of the major soil degradation processes and it is responsible for the decrease in agronomic potential of soils and in agricultural land surfaces. Water and soil conservation works (WSCW) are built to protect soil from erosion. The financial and environmental cost the WSCW construction is very high. However, the positive impacts of WSCW are not taken into account in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The objectives of this study is to intergrate the impact of WSCW on soil quality in LCA. There are different types of WSCW with different functions and they act differently on erosion process. In this study we focussed on contour ridges as a type of
conservation works because they are associated to crop systems. Contour ridges are generally built in upland areas to reduce runoff and erosion, to increase on-site deposition of eroded particles and to increase local water infiltration. Contour ridges modify water and soil flows at catchment scale, so it is necessary to use a model able to calculate the inventory flow at the catchment and not only at the plot level. In this study we present a methodology to integrate the impact of contour ridges on topsoil erosion at the catchment level and to compute characterization factors in presence of such WSCW.The proposed method was applied in a case study in semi-arid context in central Tunisia (Merguellil watershed) which presents the issues of over-exploitation of water resources, accelerated land degradation and a high expansion of conservation works. In order to highlight the impact of WSCW on topsoil erosion, diffrent catchment scenarios (with and without contour ridges ) and land use types were tested. For life cycle impact assessment, we focussed on two midpoint impact categories on soil quality of LANCA model : erosion resistance and mechanical filtration. The results showed how contour ridges can modify topsoil erosion process and thus the impact on soil ecological functions for several production systems. In conclusion, It is necessary to integrate the positive impacts of contour ridges in life cycle assessment but usual models are not able to evaluate them. It will be also neccessary to integrate the impact of the other types of water and soil conservation works in topsoil erosion impact modelling.
MO095
Impact of heavy metals on human toxicity using LCA: a case study for Walloon corn
S. Gerbinet, Université de Liège / Chemical Engineering; F. Van Stappen, CRAW Walloon Agricultural Research Centre; S. Belboom, ULiege; E. Pezennec, Knauf Insulation sprl.; S. Groslambert, University of Liège - Chemical Engineering / Dpt of Chemical Engineering - PEPs; A. Leonard, University of Liege
This paper aims to focus on surprising results when assessing the human toxicity of corn farming in Wallonia, Belgium. The USEtox method is applied to the farming of one hectare of corn. Local data are used for farming data and GaBi datasets are used for background data. The field emissions due to farming are calculated by the most used models. The results in human toxicity, cancer effect, underline the large contribution of chromium (Cr) emissions due to the use of organic and mineral fertilizers. But during fertilizers composition characterization only the total chromium is measured and therefore, unspecified chromium is used as emissions. However, it is known that the chromium in natural environment is most probably Cr (III) and this could really decrease the impact as the characterization factor for unspecified chromium, is, in USEtox, the average of the one of Cr (III) (non-toxic) and Cr (VI) (toxic), therefore really larger than the one of Cr (III). Therefore, a test is realized where 95% of the Chromium is Cr (III) and the rest is Cr (VI). In this case, score in human toxicity cancer effect is divided by 7, whereas this has no influence on the other results. The impact for human toxicity, non-cancer effect is mostly related to zinc emissions in soil due to the use of organic fertilizers,
especially pig manure. However, zinc is abundant and is an important trace element in the human body. It is useful for growth, bone and brain development, etc. and the European Commission recommends the consumption of 7- 10 mg of zinc by person and per day. Moreover, mammals are able to eliminate zinc, therefore they are able to maintain a constant level of zinc independently of the exposure level.
Consequently, only the exposure to high doses can have toxic effects. A test was made with the characterization factor of zinc equal to 0 in the USEtox model. In this case, the corn cropping obtains a human toxicity, non-cancer effect divided by 12 compared to the base case and mostly related to lead and mercury emissions in the soil. In both case, the contribution of pesticide is negligible. In conclusion, although the uncertainties about toxicity categories are well-known, this case study underlines the impact of the user hypotheses and shows that a detailed analysis of the results is essential for a critical view on the toxicity results.
MO097
Comparing ProScale Hazard Factors with USEtox Effect Factors for human toxicity
T. Rydberg, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute; H. Holmquist, Chalmers University of Technology
The purpose of this study is to compare side-by-side, the Hazard Factors (HF) of ProScaleTM, and the Effect Fators (EF) for human toxicity of USEtoxTM, and analyse the results, as both factors have been developed as a metric for adverse human health impacts due to toxic effects. Hazard factors in ProScale are derived based on substances classification in the GHS/CLP classification system, reflecting health effect severity based on H-phrase as basis for substance grouping in five ProScale hazard classes, and an OEL based correction factor has been introduced o account for potency within each class. The effect factor (EF) is a metric of the change in life time disease probability due to change in life time intake of a pollutant (cases/kg). USEtoxTM determines effect factors for carcinogenic and noncarcinogenic chemicals separately. Both methods have separate factors for inhalative and oral exposure routes. All the effect factors available in USEtox 2.0 were the starting point. The comparison was only carried out for the inhalative exposure route. The factors were then filtered into two different sets of substances. All substances having a carcinogenic effect factor were compared to the resulting Hazard factor as calculated with the ProScale method. Substances not having a carcinogenic effect factor in USEtox were compared separately. Tendencies of correlation can be identified, but differences are large. Interesting discrepancies, also of principal matters, have been identifed. The results shown are very first results from comparison of ProScale HFs and USEtox EFs for human toxicity. Further work is needed, and under way.
MO098
Integrating the Use Phase Impacts of Building Materials into Near-Field LCA Characterization
L. Huang, University of Michigan / Dept of Environmental Health Sciences; N. Anastas, US Environmental Protection Agency / National Risk Management Research Laboratory; P. Egeghy, D. Vallero, US Environmental Protection Agency / National Exposure Research Laboratory; D.E. Meyer, United States
Environmental Protection Agency / National Risk Management Research Laboratory; J.C. Bare, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency / National Risk Management Research Laboratory; O. Jolliet, University of Michigan
Historically, LCA has focused on impacts with far-reaching temporal and spatial scales, and not exposures to near-field goods such as consumer products and building materials. However, with increased use of LCA to support decisions related to chemical alternative assessments, characterization of the near-field exposures to these products is becoming recognized as increasingly important. Therefore, the US EPA has developed a research project to improve such characterization. Several recent papers have suggested that the exposures to these consumer products and building materials may be significantly greater than exposures to far-field emissions, and therefore, not including these exposures may result in decisions which are unknowingly biased in a manner which could lead to increased risk. The difficulty up to this point in time has been to characterize these exposures since the product compositions are often unknown and the pathways to exposure have been poorly characterized. This poster will describe the research project, including the conceptual framework which demonstrates the methods by which the EPA intends to include exposures to these goods, the definition of Product Intake Fraction (PiF), the many exposure pathways being characterized, the methods for development of PiFs, and the data and models being recommended for a variety of populations to support this characterization. Finally, data gaps and other research needs will be discussed along with the future direction of the project. Keywords: LCA, LCIA, building materials, consumer products Acknowledgement - This work was conducted under US EPA Contract No. EP-16-C-000070 with the University of Michigan. Disclaimer - The views expressed in this abstract are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.
MO099
Combined use of Mixed-Integer Optimisation and Thermodynamic, Molecular and Charge Density attributes for predicting Life Cycle Production