Page 284 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

268 4 Life Cycle Impact Assessment

surface waters by means of run-off depends definitely on the local site formation.
As these difficulties do not occur for terrestrial eutrophication by air, which
additionally is partly caused by the same pollutants as the acidification, country
specific characterisation factors were at first only deduced for this subcategory. 263)
The model is similar to the one introduced in Section 4.5.2.5. From the inventory
data only NO and NH are considered, however the site of emission must at
x
3
least be approximately known. This should be more easily acquirable with large
stationary emission sources than with highly distributed ones. The characterisation
factors are calculated for 35 European countries and 5 oceanic regions for the years
2002 and are estimated for 2010 and listed in a table. They apply to the indicator
‘accumulated exceedance’ of limit values as already discussed.

4.5.3
Toxicity-Related Impact Categories
4.5.3.1 Introduction
In this section two impact categories are discussed where traditionally little harmony
between LCA research and application, and the groups of societies involved has
been observed: human toxicity and ecotoxicity. 264) The reason might be a problem
of the application of scientific knowledge and feasibility, with little resolution of
time and space offered by the inventory data. The most radical proposal to solve
the problem by neglect can only exceptionally be adhered to, because

• first, most people consider protection of health as an important, in the US
most important, 265) aspect of environmental protection and therefore also of
environmental assessment tools
• second, LCA, Environmental LCA 266) is an ecological evaluation of product systems
or more generally of human activities 267) which includes the protection of human
health and of ecosystems as fundamental to human existence for every definition
chosen. Whether, in addition, nature has its own rights, implying the renunciation
of the anthropocentric point of view, does not have to be discussed here. 268)
Therefore, the impact categories human toxicity and ecotoxicity cannot be neglected
even if in some LCA studies – depending on the Goal and Scope definition – the
interrelated issues of the protection of resources, of energy savings and of global
impacts (above all ‘Climate change’) are in the lead. However, a scientifically
approvable elaboration on toxicity-related categories implies new challenges for
the inventories, which have not been met yet. This is especially true for organic
pollutants that may be emitted over the entire life cycle of a product.

263) Huijbregts and Sepp¨ al¨ a, 2001, Sepp¨ al¨ a, Knuutila and Silvo (2004) and Sepp¨ al¨ a et al. (2006).
264) Kl¨ opffer (1996a); more recently, a major breakthrough has been achieved by a UNEP/SETAC
working group, see Hauschild et al. (2007) and Rosenbaum et al. (2008, 2011).
265) Bare et al. (2002).
266) Kl¨ opffer (2008).
267) SETAC (1993).
268) Beltrani (1997) (this author represents a moderate anthropocentric point of view: humans with
regard to their own species should not destroy the fundamentals of life!).