Guidelines for consistent reporting of exchanges/to nature within life cycle inventories (LCI)

Data availability and data quality are still critical factors for successful LCA work. The SETAC-Europe LCA Working Group ‘Data Availability and Data Quality' has therefore focused on ongoing developments toward a common data exchange format, public databases and accepted quality measures to find science-based solutions than can be widely accepted. A necessary prerequisite for the free flow and exchange of life cycle inventory (LCI) data and the comparability of LCIs is the consistent definition, nomenclature, and use of inventory parameters. This is the main subject of the subgroup ‘Recommended List of Exchanges' that presents its results and findings here: • Rigid parameter lists for LCIs are not practical; especially, compulsory lists of measurements for all inventories are counterproductive. Instead, practitioners should be obliged to give the rationale for their scientific choice of selected and omitted parameters. The standardized (not: mandatory!) parameter list established by the subgroup can help to facilitate this. • The standardized nomenclature of LCI parameters and the standardized list of measurement bases (units) for these parameters need not be appliedinternally (e.g. in LCA software), but should be adhered to inexternal communications (data for publication and exchange). Deviations need to be clearly stated. • Sum parameters may or may not overlap - misinterpretations in either direction introduce a bias of unknown significance in the subsequent life cycle impact assessments (LCIA). The only person who can discriminate unambiguously is the practitioner who measures or calculates such values. Therefore, a clear statement of independence or overlap is necessary for every sum parameter reported. • Sum parameters should be only used when the group of emissions as such is measured. Individually measured emission parameters should not be hidden in group or sum parameters. • Problematic substances (such as carcinogens, ozone depleting agents and the like) maynever be obscured in group emissions (together with less harmful substances or with substances of different environmental impact), butmust be determined and reported individually, as mentioned in paragraph 3.3 of this article. • Mass and energy balances should be carried out on a unit process level. Mass balances should be done on the level of the entire mass flow in a process as well as on the level of individual chemical elements. • Whenever possible, practitioners should try to fill data gaps with their knowledge of analogous processes, environmental expert judgements, mass balance calculations, worst case assumptions or similar estimation procedure

LCA’s theory and practice: like ebony and ivory living in perfect harmony?

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is recognized as a trustworthy, scientific while understandable approach to address the environmental sustainability of human activities. It is applied for multiple uses in internal and external information supply and for decision support

Rationale, design, implementation, and baseline characteristics of patients in the DIG trial: A large, simple, long-term trial to evaluate the effect of digitalis on mortality in heart failure

This article provides a detailed overview of the rationale for key aspects of the protocol of the Digitalis Investigation Group (DIG) trial. It also highlights unusual aspects of the study implementation and the baseline characteristics. The DIG trial is a large, simple, international placebo-controlled trial whose primary objective is to determine the effect of digoxin on all cause mortality in patients with clinical heart failure who are in sinus rhythm and whose ejection fraction is less than or equal to 0.45. An ancillary study examines the effect in those with an ejection fraction > 0.45. Key aspects of the trial include the simplicity of the design, broad eligibility criteria, essential data collection, and inclusion of various types of centers. A total of 302 centers in the United States and Canada enrolled 7788 patients between February 1991 and September 1993. Follow-up continued until December 1995 with the results available in Spring 1996