Page 267 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

L1644_C06.fm Page 240 Monday, October 20, 2003 12:06 PM

is the application of the multimedia fate model (e.g., UniRisk, EUSES, CalTOX,
etc.,). Another way of stating this is to say that if an ERA has been carried out (as
described in Chapter 4) for one of the identified predominant processes of an indus-
trial process chain, then it is quite easy to compute the impact factors necessary for
a quite accurate environmental damage estimation of industrial process chains. The
realization of an ERA is seen in Figure 6.15 as an optional element; this approach
is further explored in Chapter 8.
Also, in the case of environmental risk assessment, a consequence analysis must
be carried out. Due to the high level of detail in this type of study, thresholds can
also be considered; thus, in the case of human health assessment, the consequence
analysis is not restricted to carcinogenic effects and respiratory diseases (see
Chapter 4 for further explanations) and other types of toxic effects can also be
considered.
When carrying out an ERA, the individual risk must be calculated, e.g., devel-
oping cancer due to the increment of a certain pollutant in the atmosphere. Multi-
plication by the absolute number of population exposed would then allow obtaining
an estimate of the damage in the form of physical impact parameters, e.g., cancer
cases. These calculated impact parameters, like cancer cases, could also be compared
with those provided by the application of the IPA on a local scale. Such a comparison
can provide correction factors.
Another optional element is the uncertainty analysis that can be carried out, e.g.,
by MC simulation according to the framework proposed in Chapter 5. In the same
way as for the LCI results, the outcomes of the fate and exposure analysis can be
transformed from a concrete value into a probability distribution around a mean
value.
Apart from site-specific impact assessments in this work, the focus for the fate
and exposure and consequence analysis has been on site-dependent impact assess-
ment as an adequate trade-off between accuracy and practicability. The entire method
is largely explained in Chapter 7. The other options of the fate and exposure and
consequence analysis (Figure 6.14) do not need further explanations because they
are similar to the site-specific impact assessment or consist only in the application
of published values for impact indicators.

6.5.7 DAMAGE PROFILE
Figure 6.16 presents the last part of the obligatory steps for the methodology of
environmental damage estimations for industrial process chains. In principle, this
flowchart consists of an illustration of the developed mathematical framework. For
each selected impact score, the eco-technology matrix is multiplied with the damage-
assigning matrices. The result can be another matrix or a vector for each damage-
assigning matrix, or a vector for the case of global impacts. In that case, the elements
of the vector need only be summed up. In the case of the matrix, a sum must be
made of the elements of the main diagonal, the trace. The matrix allows checking
in which location a process would have caused less damage.
The sum obtained by each matrix calculation provides a damage-endpoint-per-
impact score that then forms the damage profile. If the same damage endpoints

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