LCA – Characterization factors i

LCA – Characterization factors in Human Health damage category.
Application of the method to rice production study

Making studies of LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) is the result of the growing preoccupation about environmental problems and ecosystem sustainability.

This kind of analysis aims to understand all the processes involved in any type of goods production and to measure the environmental impacts that they engender.

The purpose of the present thesis is to propose a substitution of some characterization factors through calculating the effects on the ecosphere caused by the utilization of resources and machineries, in order to obtain an evaluation of the damages closer to the real local situation. The damage category on which the attention is focalized is Human Health, and the substances taken into consideration are carbon monoxide, particulate matter, sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides.

Starting from data concerning emission and concentration of the atmospheric pollutants, and mortality and morbidity in the metropolitan area of Milan (year 2000), studying and applying correlations calculated by important researches, the indicator finally shows an estimated association between 1 kg of emitted substance and DALYs (Disability-Adjusted Life Years). So this new local characterisation factor is suitable to be enclosed in the Dutch software named SimaPro 5.0 based on Eco-Indicator 99 method for LCA studies, used for making the analysis that in the present case regards rice production. The substitution involves different results, that are also compared with the ones emerging from another method in use for LCA studies (the swedish EPS 2000).

The relations that have been found during the aggregating data for the indicator calculation are additionally relevant because they allow the estimation of the damage caused by the entire annual emission of the four main atmospheric pollutants on citizens health, considering the classification by different kind of pathology (heart and vascular disease, respiratory disease, lung cancer) or by type of effect (mortality, morbidity).

The present work intends also to show the economic aspect of the analysis, and makes an attempt to give a monetary amount to the noticed environmental impacts.

It basically comes out that it is possible to make LCA analysis about the entire life cycle of the product or only for a part of it, and it is an instrument that can allow firms to be more ecological and more competitive –by improving efficiency and saving resources–; the new characterization factor associates more serious damage effect on human health to the four atmospheric pollutants than the actual method does; applied to the whole year emission (coming from all the industries, the traffic and the house heating) of the examined area, the indicator points out an estimation of the great social cost of pollution.