PARENT SESSION
64 - Life-Cycle Assessment, Risk Assessment, and Related Tools
2:10 PM to 5:20 PM, Wednesday, 15 May 2002
Session Chair: Jensen, Allan A. ¹, Fullana, Pere ², ^{1 2} .
Stolz A

(64-02) Time and Space Integrated Risk and Potential Consequences of Toxicological Impacts: IMPACT 2002 .

Pennington, David^*,1, Margni, Manuele¹, Payet, Jerome¹, Tauxe, Annick¹, Charles, Raphael¹, Ammann, Christoph¹, Pelichet, Thierry¹, Jolliet, Olivier¹, ¹ Life Cycle Group for Sustainable Development, Lausanne, Switzerland

ABSTRACT- The important need for researchers, users, and stakeholders to understand the true relevance of LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) indicators and to identify, implement, and advance the best available practice is clear and has driven the development of IMPACT 2002 (Impact Assessment for Chemical Toxicants: A modular approach for the assessment of chemical fate, exposure, and toxicological impacts). IMPACT 2002 estimates, as far as possible, the time and space integrated likelihood (risk) and potential consequences of toxicological impacts associated with a unit mass of a chemical emitted into the environment; characterisation factors. Considering time and space integrated impacts linked to a mass of a chemical emitted, rather than to a flow rate and resultant specific concentration, represents a clear and important departure towards sustainability in comparison with many regulatory-orientated risk assessment practices. The integrated risks and potential consequences can occur over multiple generations and at multiple sites, often below policy-based thresholds; particularly for persistent chemicals subject to long-range transport. Such residual risks and potential consequences are not quantified in many current assessments, where dilution is often the solution. In this presentation we therefore provide an overview of the relationship and differences between typical regulatory-orientated risk assessments for chemicals and the results of an LCA using IMPACT 2002. Addressing methodologies adopted in IMPACT 2002, the presentation focuses on issues such as individual vs. population-based exposure, the meaning and relevance of different types of thresholds, how to address consequences as well as risks to human health, and the selection of an ecotoxicological measure in the context of exposures to the complex mixtures of contaminants found in the environment.

Key words: modelling, LCA, risk assessment, toxicological impacts