Page 219 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

4.4 Method of Impact Categories (Environmental Problem Fields) 203

problem field of groundwater pollution. The drinking water problem, like the
general exposition via food, is implicitly included in the category human toxicity.
On the other hand water also represents an important resource and therefore
cannot be only valuated by toxicological criteria. Recently close attention has been
paid to this issue, both in research and standardisation (see Section 4.5.1.5).
To this day occupational safety is a controversial issue in the LCA community.
On the one hand, endangerment in the workplace is part of the technosphere
and strictly regulated in many highly developed industrial nations; however, only
there! On the other hand it is argued that a risky production procedure should
also obtain a malus in LCIA. An inclusion of this (environmental) problem field
into the impact assessment is demanded particularly by Scandinavian states. 61)
The problem will be solved if in the comprehensive sustainability analysis of the
product 62) the workplace will be a general issue within the scope of product-related
social assessment (see Chapter 6).
The protection of landscape or the demand for natural space has never been
explicitly addressed by SETAC experts. It can however be regarded as part of space
requirement. A severe deficit in this first list is the absence of exposure to hard
radiation as an individual impact category. Implicitly is it included in the categories
human toxicity and environmental toxicity.
Altogether it cannot be denied that the list was the result of brain storming at
the time of the conference. Thus, it has, for example, been pointed out that the
chemical oxygen demand (COD) is no environmental problem field as such, but
rather an indicator for those of eutrophication and ecotoxicity. Also, the example
of final solid waste shows that not every indicator is an impact category: quantities
of non-usable waste is a result of the LCI and can affect different environmental
problem fields depending on the type of waste treatment and landfill.
Table 4.4 shows a further elaboration of the list by a team of experts of the SETAC
Europe chaired by Helias Udo de Haes with the prospect of integration into ISO
regulations of LCIA. As it turned out, however, for good reasons ISO did not accept
the integration of a specific list of categories into the standard 14042.
Casualties is a new entry of the list, occupational safety is cancelled (partly overlaps
63)
with casualties). A study on behalf the UBA Berlin showed that accidents in power
plants can basically be included into LCAs if this is part of the goal definition. A
general method however does not exist. ‘Solid waste’ from the original Leiden list
was referred into the LCI.
Numerous lists compiled by different authors and committees differ usually only
slightly by designation or structuring. They adequately reproduce environmental
problems discussed at the turn of the century but can neither be complete nor
free of overlap. A breakdown of complex categories such as human toxicity implies
an integration of many ‘(toxicological) end points’, which finally would induce
confusing results even in the case of adequate and sufficient data. Consequently
there have been attempts to reduce numerous category end points to a few broader

61) Lindfors et al. (1995) and Udo de Haes and Wrisberg (1997).
62) Kl¨ opffer and Renner (2007).
63) Kurth et al. (2004).