Page 302 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

286 4 Life Cycle Impact Assessment

released in a small quantity per functional unit dominate the impact assessment.
If a comparable product is less carefully investigated the product system with
superior investigation will be discriminated, that is, that sluggards (who do not
thoroughly investigate) or swindlers (if releases of toxic substances were consciously
suppressed) will even be ‘rewarded’. Therefore special care has to be taken if the
results of the toxicity indicator are used for comparative assertions, and a particular
effort is necessary for a critical review of results.
Hauschild et al. 346) brought the situation to the point in writing:

Without an appropriate link to the inventory, the impact assessment is bound to
do a poor job.

4.5.4
Nuisances by Chemical and Physical Emissions

4.5.4.1 Introduction
Nuisances within the impact assessment are those which do not directly lead
to diseases or heavy damages in ecosystems but are considered by humans as
disturbing, annoying or as reducing the quality of life. These include above all
smell and noise. The latter is regarded by the population as a very highly ranked
environmental problem and noise applied at continuously high levels can actually
make a person ill. The traditional designation ‘nuisance’ is therefore only justified
for small doses. Noise can also be considered as physical emission perceived by
physiological-sensory means. As such it would be on even level with probably the
most precarious physical emission of hard radiation (see Section 4.5.5), which is
however not directly perceived as sensorial, and can even in small doses on a
long-term basis cause damages.
In view of their impact radius, noise and smell are assigned to local range.
In industrialised countries both are however pervasive through an abundance of
sources.

4.5.4.2 Smell
Smelling nuisances have as a starting point many human activities in industry,
trade and in the agriculture. An obvious differentiation into good and bad smells
is practically hardly feasible as the exhaust air of an odorous substance factory
(without sophisticated purification) is rarely less troubling than that of a field
fertilised with liquid manure. It can be assumed that each inadvertent (man-
made) smell is considered an environmental exposure. As weighting factors odour
threshold values (OTVs) are suitable. 347) Although they can only be determined
quite inaccurately by ‘smelling panels’ some useful lists exist (e.g. Heijungs et al.,
1992; Guin´ ee et al., 2002, loc. cit.); however, a single one, sanctioned by a team of
experts would be better. With the help of these values as a weighting tool, a type of

346) Hauschild et al. (2011).
347) Heijungs et al. (1992), Kl¨ opffer and Renner (1995) and Guin´ ee et al. (2002).