Analyses of the life cycle impact assessment of pharmaceutical product inventories

Abstract

Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) is one of basic steps in life cycle assessment methodology (LCA). This paper presents the application of approach LCA for the rejections of drugs company SAIDAL, in order to determine the environmental impacts relative to this industrial activity, since it is classified among industry leader in the pharmaceutical field in Algeria, and that it takes part largely in the environmental disturbance by generating various categories of impacts. For this purpose, an eco-balance was establish by the collection of the theoretical data to the meadows of the company and of the practical data, resulting from the assay of pharmaceutical liquid. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool to evaluate the environmental impacts of a product or process throughout its entire life cycle. LCA was first developed as a method to evaluate the impacts of a product over its entire ife cycle, but it has since grown to be used in evaluating the environmental impacts of a business activities or a nation’s economic activity as well. Over the last ten years there has been a rapid expansion in the demand for LCA studies to chart the environmental performance of products. Industries, environmental experts, academics, regulatory authorities, politicians, consumers associations, environmental organizations and the general public want to know how to assess the environmental quality of products and production process. LCAs have become a common environmental management tool and a good analytical method for assessing and optimizing the environmental quality of a system over the whole life cycle. Residues of drug for human and animals are found throughout the word. Nonetheless it was only very recently those we wearable to assay these compounds, thus proving their presence. This has drawn the attention of environmental managers to their interactions with aquatic fauna and flora and of local water users to issues of drinking water production. These compounds come from pharmaceutical industry reject, healthcare facilities (hospitals, clinics…), many of theme are nonetheless eliminated either by absorption or biodegradation, other pass through different barriers as; sewage treatment plants, soil…which are found in natural environment. For this, the present study relates to application of life cycle analysis (ACV) approach to the rejection of drug company SAIDAL Algeria. In order to determine the environmental impacts relative to this industrial activity, since it’s classified among industry leader in the pharmaceutical field in Algeria, and that it takes part largely in the environment disturbance by generating various category of impacts. The assessment is done by means of LCA, according to the ISO 14040 series by using SimaPro.6 LCA Software using the Eco Indicator 95 methodology.