Integrating endocrine-related health effects into comparative human toxicity characterization.

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals have the ability to interfere with and alter functions of the hormone system, leading to adverse effects on reproduction, growth and development. Despite growing concerns over their now ubiquitous presence in the environment, endocrine-related human health effects remain largely outside of comparative human toxicity characterization frameworks as applied for example in life cycle impact assessments. In this paper, we propose a new methodological framework to consistently integrate endocrine-related health effects into comparative human toxicity characterization.

Modeling pharmaceutical emissions and their toxicity-related effects in life cycle assessment (LCA): A review.

Over the last few decades, worldwide detection of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in aquatic environments and the associated toxicological effects on wildlife and human health have become a matter of public and scientific debate. While life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) models are increasingly used to assess the potential eco- and human-toxicological effects of chemical emissions, few studies have looked into the issue of modeling pharmaceutical emissions specifically and their toxicity-related effects in an LCA context. This paper reviews the state of the art to inventory and characterize API emissions in LCA with the goal to identify relevant gaps and challenges.

Application Options of the Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI)-Assessing the Status of Sustainable Development and Establishing Social Impact Pathways.

The needs of children and their vulnerability to diseases, violence and poverty are different from those of adults. The Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI) was thus developed in previous work to evaluate the status of sustainable development for countries with a focus on children and triple-bottom-line thinking. This study proposes application options to put the SCDI into practice.

Product environmental footprint in policy and market decisions: Applicability and impact assessment.

In April 2013, the European Commission published the Product and Organisation Environmental Footprint (PEF/OEF) methodology--a life cycle-based multicriteria measure of the environmental performance of products, services, and organizations. With its approach of "comparability over flexibility," the PEF/OEF methodology aims at harmonizing existing methods, while decreasing the flexibility provided by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards regarding methodological choices. Currently, a 3-y pilot phase is running, aiming at testing the methodology and developing product category and organization sector rules (PEFCR/OEFSR).

New techniques for the characterization of refuse-derived fuels and solid recovered fuels.

Solid recovered fuel (SRF) today refers to a waste-derived fuel meeting defined quality specifications, in terms of both origin (produced from non-hazardous waste) and levels of certain fuel properties. Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) nowadays is more used for unspecified waste after a basic processing to increase the calorific value and therefore this term usually refers to the segregated, high calorific fraction of municipal solid waste (MSW), commercial or industrial wastes. In comparison with conventional fuels, both types of secondary fuel show waste of inherently varying quality and an increased level of waste-specific contaminants.