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Systematic approach for integrating indoor chemical exposures into building materials LCA
Citation:
Egeghy, P., L. Huang, N. Anastas, D. Vallero, O. Jolliet, AND J. Bare. Systematic approach for integrating indoor chemical exposures into building materials LCA. 2018 Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, Portland, OR, June 18 - 20, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
Proposes a novel, systematic approach for integrating chemical exposures and health impacts into life cycle assessment of building materials during the product use stage. A case study illustrates that physicochemical properties determine dominant exposure pathways and consistency of intake rate over time, while elucidating important data gaps related to product composition, chemical emissions, and chemical toxicity.
Description:
Green building rating and certification systems frequently rely on evaluation tools such as life cycle assessment (LCA) to help identify potential impacts and reduce environmental burdens. Specialized applications have been developed to simplify LCA and facilitate its use in the building sector, but these LCA models and tools often do not consider human exposures and health impacts during building occupancy. Although efforts have been made to incorporate indoor air-related health impacts into LCA (e.g., in the USEtox 2.0 model), methods are still lacking for estimating the indoor chemical emissions and resulting human exposures in a way consistent with traditional LCA. We propose and describe the components of a systematic approach for integrating chemical exposures and health impacts during the use stage into life cycle assessment of building materials. A case study of formaldehyde and methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) in composite wood products illustrates that the physicochemical properties of the chemical determine which pathway will be the dominant exposure pathway and govern the consistency of the daily intake rate over time, both of which affect potential health impacts. The case study also elucidates important data and modeling gaps which may deter the application of the proposed systematic approach, namely, product chemical composition and toxicity data and high-throughput chemical emissions models.
