| 1. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, et al.
(författare)
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The Zinc Paradox – a Problem for USETox-based indicators of national chemical footprint
- 2016
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Considering the immense problem of chemical pollution worldwide, there is a great need for methods that can be used to calculate indicators of chemical footprints. Such indicators can be calculated for products and services using life cycle assessment (LCA), but also for whole nations. Indicators of natio- nal chemical footprints may include emissions within the nation’s borders only, or also emissions related to consumption (thus having a life cycle perspective). A limited number of studies (< 5) have attempted to calculate indicators of national chemical footprints using the USEtox consensus model for toxicity impact assessment in LCA. One of these is our calculation of indicators of a national chemical footprint for Sweden. Two other studies have made similar assessments for Europe. Using the national perspective of these studies enables a rough validation of USEtox results, since the indicators of national chemiABSTRACTS 62 63 cal footprint based on USEtox can be compared to non-LCA toxicity assessments done on national levels. Such validations are not possible for LCA studies of single products. Notably, the results of existing assessments of indicators of national chemical footprints, including our Swedish study, all pinpoint zinc as the dominating substance. Zinc typically accounts for >50% of the toxicity impacts for both ecotoxicity and human toxicity. For ecotoxicity, this is not unreasonable considering the notable toxicity of zinc to aquatic organisms. For human toxicity, this result is more surprising. Zinc is an essential trace element for humans that many take as a dietary supplement to prevent zinc deficiency. Non-LCA sources describe zinc as “relatively harmless” to human health. The World Health Organisation (WHO) does not list zinc among the top ten chemicals of major public health concern, although there are other metals on the list (mercury, lead, cadmium and arsenic). These contradictory claims about zinc’s health impact seem to constitute a paradox. We present a review of existing studies assessing indicators of national chemical footprints, and of toxicological research related to zinc. We further discuss potential causes of this zinc paradox, as well as implications for assessments of indicators of national chemical footprints with USEtox.
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| 2. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
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The zinc paradox – a problem for USEtox-based indicators of national chemical footprints?
- 2016
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Ingår i: SETAC Europe 22th Case Study Symposium, 20-22 September, Montpellier, France.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Considering the immense problem of chemical pollution worldwide, there is a great need for methods that can be used to calculate indicators of chemical footprints. Such indicators can be calculated for products and services using life cycle assessment (LCA), but also for whole nations. Indicators of national chemical footprints may include emissions within the nation’s borders only, or also emissions related to consumption (thus having a life cycle perspective). A limited number of studies ( 50% of the toxicity impacts for both ecotoxicity and human toxicity. For ecotoxicity, this is not unreasonable considering the notable toxicity of zinc to aquatic organisms. For human toxicity, this result is more surprising. Zinc is an essential trace element for humans that many take as a dietary supplement to prevent zinc deficiency. Non-LCA sources describe zinc as “relatively harmless” to human health. The World Health Organisation (WHO) does not list zinc among the top ten chemicals of major public health concern, although there are other metals on the list (mercury, lead, cadmium and arsenic). These contradictory claims about zinc’s health impact seem to constitute a paradox. We present a review of existing studies assessing indicators of national chemical footprints, and of toxicological research related to zinc. We further discuss potential causes of this zinc paradox, as well as implications for assessments of indicators of national chemical footprints with USEtox.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Bengtsson, Janne, et al.
(författare)
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Framtidens landsbygdsprogram och olika utmaningar
- 2017
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Ingår i: Boken "Så här ligger landet-tankar om landsbygdsprogram och landsbygdsutveckling", Jordbruksverket, Jönköping. ; , s. 171-178
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 5. |
- Bergez, J-E, et al.
(författare)
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Integrating agri-environmental indicators, ecosystem services assessment, life cycle assessment and yield gap analysis to assess the environmental sustainability of agriculture.
- 2022
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Ingår i: Ecological Indicators. - : Elsevier BV. - 1470-160X. ; 141
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Agriculture’s primary function is the production of food, feed, fibre and fuel for the fast-growing world population. However, it also affects human health and ecosystem integrity. Policymakers make policies in order to avoid harmful impacts. How to assess such policies is a challenge. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework to help evaluate the impacts of agricultural policies on the environment. Our framework represents the global system as four subsystems and their interactions. These four components are the cells of a 2 by 2 matrix [Agriculture, Rest of the word]; [Socio-eco system, Ecological system]. We then developed a set of indicators for environmental issues and positioned these issues in the framework. To assess these issues, we used four well-known existing approaches: Life Cycle Assessment, Ecosystem Services Analysis, Yield Gap Analysis and Agro-Environmental Indicators. Using these four approaches together provided a more holistic view of the impacts of a given policy on the system. We then applied our framework on existing cover crop policies using an extensive literature survey and analysing the different environmental issues mobilised by the four assessment approaches. This demonstration case shows that our framework may be of help for a full systemic assessment. Despite their differences (aims, scales, standardization, data requirements, etc.), it is possible and profitable to use the four approaches together. This is a significant step forward, though more work is needed to produce a genuinely operational tool.
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| 10. |
- Cederberg, Christel, et al.
(författare)
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An LCA researcher's wish list-data and emission models needed to improve LCA studies of animal production.
- 2013
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Ingår i: Animal. - 1751-7311 .- 1751-732X. ; 7:Suppl 2, s. 212-219
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The last decade has seen an increase in environmental systems analysis of livestock production, resulting in a significant number of studies with a holistic approach often based on life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The growing public interest in global warming has added to this development; guidelines for carbon footprint (CF) accounting have been developed, including for greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting of animal products. Here we give an overview of methods for estimating GHG emissions, with emphasis on nitrous oxide, methane and carbon from land use change, presently used in LCA/CF studies of animal products. We discuss where methods and data availability for GHGs and nitrogen (N) compounds most urgently need to be improved in order to produce more accurate environmental assessments of livestock production. We conclude that the top priority is to improve models for N fluxes and emissions from soils and to implement soil carbon change models in LCA/CF studies of animal products. We also point at the need for more farm data and studies measuring emissions from soils, manure and livestock in developing countries.
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