A method for human health impact assessment in social LCA: lessons from three case studies

Rickard Arvidsson,Jutta Hildenbrand,Henrikke Baumann,Rasmus Parsmo,K M Nazmul Islam

doi:10.1007/s11367-016-1116-7

Abstract

PurposeImproving human health is a long-lasting endeavour of mankind. In the field of social life cycle assessment (SLCA), the importance of human health is often highlighted, and further development of impact assessment methods has been recommended. The purpose of this article is to present a method for assessing human health impacts within SLCA.MethodsBy using a systematic combining approach, knowledge and experience about assessing human health impacts were obtained from three previously conducted case studies. The first case study was about an airbag system, the second about a catalytic converter and the third about gold jewellery. The disability-adjusted life years (DALY) indicator was used for impact assessment in all three case studies.Results and discussionBoth positive and negative human health impacts associated with the products were identified and assessed in the three case studies. For the airbag system, avoided health impacts in the use phase outweighed health impacts during production. For the catalytic converter, whether health impacts avoided exceeded health impacts caused or not depended on which time perspective regarding impacts was employed. Gold jewellery does not help avoiding any health impacts but caused considerable health impacts when produced at a certain location. Based on experience from these case studies, a generic human health impact assessment method was developed, and a life cycle human health typology for products was developed based on the method. The method provides a basis for analysis and interpretation of health impacts along product life cycles, and it is therefore important to report both positive and negative health impacts separately for different actors.ConclusionsThe developed human health impact assessment method involves the assessment and comparison of both positive and negative human health impacts along product life cycles. In addition to the products assessed in the three case studies, we suggest additional products that could be particularly interesting to assess with the developed method, including medicines, seat belts, other conflict minerals, alcoholic beverages and products with a high chemical impact.

Highlights

Responsible editor: Marzia TraversoImproving human health is a long-lasting endeavour of mankind, and scientific research is fundamental for achieving this goal (World Health Organization 2013)
The airbag system study only considered emissions contributing to human toxicity, and not health impacts due to global warming and other more indirect emissionrelated impacts
In the catalytic converter study, this was expanded to include all emissions that contribute to human health impacts and work environment impacts from all processes

Summary

Introduction

Responsible editor: Marzia TraversoImproving human health is a long-lasting endeavour of mankind, and scientific research is fundamental for achieving this goal (World Health Organization 2013). Human health is considered in many different scientific disciplines, including medical science It is frequently mentioned as an important aspect in the field of social life cycle assessment (SLCA). Norris (2006) discussed socioeconomic impacts and used human health in terms of mortality and morbidity as endpoint As illustrated, he calculated the disability-adjusted life years (DALY) for electricity production at three geographical locations with different grid. The life cycle initiative, a joint organisation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), developed guidelines for SLCA which included a list of six impact categories (Benoît et al 2009) One of these six impact categories was health and safety. A handbook on product social impact assessment referred to health and safety as a social topic—the only social topic relevant for all three stakeholder groups considered there (Fontes et al 2014). Simas et al (2014) used DALY to assess occupational health damage as part of their Bbad labour^ footprint

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