Chemical Footprint: A Methodological Framework for bridging life cycle assessment and planetary boundaries for chemical pollution

The development and use of footprint methodologies for environmental assessment are increasingly important for both the scientific and political communities. Starting from the ecological footprint, developed at the beginning of the 90s, several other footprints were defined, namely carbon and water footprint. These footprints - even though based on different meaning of “footprint” - integrate life cycle thinking, and focus on some challenging environmental impacts, namely: resource consumption, CO2 emission leading to climate change, and water consumption. However, they usually neglect a relevant sources of impact, as those related to the production and use of chemicals. This paper presents and discusses the need and relevance of developing a methodology for assessing the chemical footprint, coupling a life cycle-based approach with methodologies developed in other contexts, such as ecological risk assessment and sustainability science. Furthermore, different concepts underpin existing footprint and this could be the case also of chemical footprint. At least two different approaches and steps to chemical footprint could be envisaged, applicable at the micro as well as at the meso and macro scale. The first step (1) is related to the account of chemicals use and emissions along the life cycle of a product, sector or entire economy, in order to assess potential impacts on ecosystems and human health. The second step (2) aims at assessing to which extent actual emission of chemicals harm the ecosystems above their capability to recover (carrying capacity of the system). The latter step might contribute to the wide discussion on planetary boundaries for chemical pollution, the thresholds that should not be surpassed in order to guarantee a sustainable use of chemicals from an environmental safety perspective. The definition of what the planetary boundaries for chemical pollution are and how the boundaries should be identified is an on-going scientific challenge for ecotoxicology and ecology. In the present paper, we present a case study at macro scale for European Union, in which the chemical footprint according to step (1) is calculated for the year 2005. A proposal for extending this approach towards step (2) is presented and discussed, complemented by a discussion on the challenges and the utility of appropriate methodologies for assessing chemical footprint in order to stimulate further research and discussion on the topic.

SALA Serenella;  GORALCZYK Malgorzata; 

2014-01-02

SOCIETY OF ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY

JRC78677

1551-3777,   

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ieam.1471/abstract,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC78677,   

10.1002/ieam.1471,