Wisdom-of-the-crowd effect's application in environmental impact assessment

The wisdom-of-the-crowd effect is a counter-intuitive phenomenon that results in the reduction of errors under some strict conditions. Those conditions are related to randomness and large enough sample size. Many research fields examine the potential use of this effect in error reduction and in overcoming limitations such as the limited number of experts in a given field. Selected environmental/human health impact assessments have been qualitatively examined for the potential existence of this phenomenon. In addition, a quantitative evaluation has been performed for four case studies of simplified life-cycle assessment. The quantitative results indicate that for end-point damage categories, the geometric mean leads to more accurate results than the arithmetic mean. Results suggest that it might be possible to reduce errors or expand the application of these assessments by using assessors with less expertise. The wisdom-of-the-crowd effect also can be used to fill in data gaps in life-cycle inventory databases. However, further research is required in this area to explore the practical uses of this phenomenon. The proposed method can be applied to any entity to examine possible improvements in any area of environmental/human health research

Application of selected life cycle occupational safety methods to the case of electricity production from pyro-oil

Life cycle thinking is a necessary component in preventing the shifting of burden along the life cycle and from one impact category to another. For this reason, many have focused on integrating life cycle thinking into occupational risk assessment. The resultant methods have different properties in terms of scope and outcomes. Literature has been reviewed for life cycle occupational risk assessment methodologies, and 3 methods (life cycle inherent toxicity (LCIT) method, work environment characterization factors (WE-CFs) method, and life cycle risk assessment (LCRA) method) have been selected and applied in a case study of electricity production from pyro-oil to identify suitability and research gaps in the existing literature. The results of the LCIT method were highly heterogenous over life cycle of electricity production. For the current case, the major cancer and non-cancer impacts originated from the same life cycles. The results from WE-CFs method were highly heterogenous over the life cycle of electricity production as well. Agriculture contributed the most to the occupational risks. In the LCRA method, averaging caused the information about the frequency of the risks over life cycle to be lost. The method showed the well-known bargaining between accuracy and simplicity when complex systems are considered. Results from this method were quite homogenous among life cycles, due to the averaging effect. Detailed reporting and follow-up of the worker health issues can enable a more accurate application of the WE-CFs method. The overall results showed that it was possible to apply these 3 methodologies for the EU-28 region

HARMONIZED INTERNET SYSTEM FOR LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT: EXPERT SYSTEMS APPROACH

The extent of the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) is not sufficient for the alternatives assessments performed in the industry in general and for the ecolabelling of the products/services. Given that the LCA is a widely-accepted methodology, the driving question behind this study was: "Is it possible to ecolabel each existing product/service in a case specific manner by using LCA results, so that the consumers would be able to know the extensive environmental impact of their decisions?". The literature has been searched for listing the main problems preventing the widespread application of LCA in ecolabelling and alternatives assessment. A system has been developed within the constraints (e.g. human resources, etc.) encountered in the literature. The resulting system is a form of an expert system, with a harmonized inter-company scope, that can perform a full LCA to be used in alternatives assessment decisions and in ecolabelling. Proposed system reduces the work load per case, establishes a well-defined scope, prioritizes case specific data, circumvents the issue of 'company secret' and enables wider application of LCA for environmental impact optimization. Another novelty is that the system considers the changes in the downstream of the supply chain due to a decision in the upstream. To establish this, the concept of 'combined total functional demand' has been introduced, which can also help in improving allocation and multifunctional product issues for end products

Environmental impact assessment model for substitution of hazardous substances by using life cycle approach

Regulations that are indirectly driving the substitution of hazardous chemicals, such as the EU REACH regulation, necessitate improvements in chemical alternatives assessment frameworks. In those frameworks, life cycle thinking lacks some important aspects such as systematic and quantitative occupational safety methods and risks from intermediate chemicals that are not released to the environment under normal operating conditions. Concerns of companies about regulatory drivers regarding substances of very high concern often lead to inadequate evaluation of the baseline situation; an issue also overlooked by the frameworks. Moreover, life cycle assessment is optional for assessors with limited resources, such as small and medium enterprises. However, the success of substitution should not be evaluated without life cycle concerns. An environmental impact assessment model has been suggested to overcome these shortcomings of the chemical alternatives assessment frameworks. The model was applied to a case study of primed metal sheet production, where the company was driven to substitute reprotoxic 2-methoxypropanol used in their formulations. The results show that the proposed model is promising for solving the mentioned shortcomings, informing the assessor about substances of very high concern along the life cycle, and it has the potential to be further improved with the help of supporting software and databases. Particularly, in the occupational safety area that concerns risks of accidents at work, improvements to the EU occupational health database can drastically increase the accuracy of the assessments. Besides, the development of methodologies for the quantification of the impacts of reprotoxic, bioaccumulative and endocrine disruptor substances is necessary

Mapping European Association of Urology Guideline Practice Across Europe: An Audit of Androgen Deprivation Therapy Use Before Prostate Cancer Surgery in 6598 Cases in 187 Hospitals Across 31 European Countries

Peer reviewe