Environmental Assessment Criteria

Table 2.4.3 BC, range of background reference concentrations (BRCs), provisional BACs, and provisional environmental assessment criteria (EACs) for metals in sediment, blue mussel and fish. Bold text indicates metals that are OSPAR chemicals for priority action...

Hauschild MZ, Olsen SI, Wenzel H (1998) Human toxicity as a criterion in the environmental assessment of products. In Hauschild MZ, Wenzel H (eds) Environmental assessment of products. Vol 2 Scientific background. Chapman and Hall, London, UK, pp 315-344... 

The fifth criterion provides assurance that the environmental impact associated with the safety topic is within current environmental regulations. This criterion reflects increased sensitivity to providing assurance that environmental impacts are identified, evaluated, and managed. A checklist that considers the impact on air, surface water, ground water, and site use permits, is used to determine whether detailed environmental assessment is required in order to make final disposition on the environmental impact. 

CLL approach and ecosystem, risk analysis. This approach provides insights on assessment and measurement endpoints for ecosystem-level EcoRA since it has a set of environmental criteria to detect the state of ecosystems critical load itself can be treated as a criterion for ecosystem sustainability (Bashkin, 2002). Moreover, one can derive spatial ecosystem risk estimates based on the percentage of ecosystems protected/potentially at risk under the current and predicted level of pollutant loads. 

Note (a) BCF is hioconcentration factor, NOEC is no-observed effect concentration. (b) For marine environmental risk assessment, half-life data in freshwater sediment can be overruled by data obtained under marine conditions. (c) Substances are classified when they fulfil the criteria for all three inherent properties for P, B and T. However, there is certain flexibility for instance in cases where one criterion is marginally not fulfilled but the others are exceeded considerably. (d) R48 Danger of serious damage to health by prolonged exposure. ... 

Here, we can see the limitations of this criterion, which corresponds to the environmental impact expressed in relation to the mass of material, whereas the environmental impact should be expressed in relation to the functional unit determined by the lifecycle assessment (LCA) - namely the amount of liquid conditioned [ASH 09], By using plastic, we are able to condition the same amount of liquid with a mass of material up to 10 times less than glass [POT 98]. This property considerably reduces CO2 emissions during transport of the hquids. 

Before adopting statistical tests to assess the reliability of data, outliers should be first analyzed carefully to identify any anomaly in instrament fidelity, calibration, procedure, environmental conditions, recording, etc. The first objective is to reject an outlier based on physical evidence that the data point was unrepresentative of the sample population. If this exercise fails to identify probable cause (or if details on the experimental methods are unavailable), Chauvenet s criterion may be applied to assess the reliability of the data point (Holman 2001). Simply put, the criterion reconunends rejecting a data point if the probability of obtaining the deviation is less than the reciprocal of two times the number of data points—l/(2n). For an outlier smaller than the mean, the data point may be rejected when ... 

Determine the consequence and likelihood of the hazard scenario. This evaluation should include an examination of safety, environmental, and economic losses (including the requirements associated with safety and environmental regulations). Based on an assessment of the overall risk associated with the identified hazard, decide if additional safeguards or Layers of Protection/lndependent Protection Layers (IPL) are required. The criterion for acceptable risk could be single numerical value, or it could be determined through use of a risk matrix. 

A 2011 study by Lithner et al. (2011) assessed the environmental and health hazards posed by plastics, based on the toxicity of their monomers. The classification is not inherent to the polymer as it is based primarily on residual monomer (with selected additives, plasticizer, and flame retardants). The ranking (see Table 8.8) can have relevance only for occupational exposures and in some food-contact uses of plastics. Also, future advances in residual monomer reduction technology and green substitution of additives can change the status of a polymer in this assessment. Where recyclabihty" is used as a ranking criterion, it generally refers to technical recyclabihty that has little to do with if the resin will in fact be recycled in practice. 

It was originally recommended (Matuszewski 2003) that five different batches of blank matrix (biological fluid in their case) should be tested for ME and RE values in order to assure reliable validation of a bioanalytical method. In the later work (Matuszewski 2006) it was further proposed that assay precision and accuracy should be determined in five different lots of a blank matrix (e.g., a biofluid) instead of repeat (n = 5) analyses using a single lot of blank matrix. Then if an isotope-labeled SIS is not available, determination of the slopes of the five calibration curves and their precision, together with use of <3-4 % (CV %) as a criterion, provides a useful guideline for assessment of the presence or otherwise of a significant relative matrix effect. Of course such a procedure is not always possible, especially for environmental samples a recent example of this problem (Stiiber 2004) involved environmental samples (river water). 

Considerations presented below have been compiled basis on the researches included in Ambro-ziak et al. 2013 that have been conducted for the EMITRANSYS project. Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection in Poland on the basis of regional data provides an annual assessment of air quality in specific areas of Poland (GIOS 2011, GIOS 2012). Assessment has been carried out taking into account two criteria protection of human health (criterion f ), protection of plants (criterion Effectiveness of national transport system according to pollution can be presented on examples of areas contaminated by harmful compounds of fumes arising from road transport. Railway transport is not included because its indirect air pollution share. 

Biodegradability can bring benefits in specific applications, particularly at the end of life of some plastics products but it is not an end by itself and it should be highlighted that end-of-life is generally not the main source of environmental impact in a product life. Fitness for use is the main driver for plastic type selection for any application and, in the perspective of an optimised use of existing resources, eco-efficiency over the whole life cycle should be the main criterion against which the combined environmental and economic impacts of any product have to be assessed. 

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