Toxic Equivalency: Multimedia Environmental Fate and Exposure Models in Life-Cycle Assessment.

摘要: Multimedia fate and exposure models are widely used to regulate the release of toxic chemicals, to set clean-up standards for contaminated sites, and to evaluate emissions in Life Cycle Assessment. CalTOX, one of these models, is used to calculate the potential dose, a parameter that is combined with the toxicity of the chemical to determine the Human Toxicity Potential (HTP). HTP was used by EDF to score industrial polluters by weighting their Toxics Release Inventory emissions [http://www. scorecard. org/env-releases/def/tep_caltox. html]. We investigate four types of uncertainty in the potential dose calculations for HTP. Parameter uncertainty and variability in the input parameters are assessed through Monte Carlo analysis. Decision rule uncertainty is explored through a comparison of the potential dose in open and closed systems. Model uncertainty is evaluated through two case studies, one using alternative …