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The present paper outlines an assessment of human health and ecotoxicity associated with recombined milk processing in order to identify the components that have the highest contribution in these impacts. The approach used was based on the life cycle assessment (LCA), which is a standardized method (ISO 14040-14044). LCA is an excellent tool of environmental management and it provides a widespread knowledge on the environmental burdens associated to a product or to a human activity. The data of the mass and energy fluxes and the environmental emissions are obtained from site investigation and literatures. The results highlighted the impact per L of packaged liquid milk: respiratory effects of 7.82E-04 kg PM2.5eq, terrestrial ecotoxicity of 2.53 kg TEG soil and aquatic ecotoxicity of 2.94E+01 kg TEG water. The research has shown that the milk powder is the largest contributor in all the categories under assessment about 69% in terrestrial ecotoxicity, 54% in aquatic ecotoxicity and 65% in respiratory effects, mainly due to the emissions from raw milk production. This is explained by the need to use a large quantity of milk for the production of milk powder (it takes about 7.8 kg of milk to make 1 kg of powdered milk). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intake fraction (iF) is the fraction of an emitted mass of chemical that is ultimately taken in by an entire population, and it is used as an indicator of human health potential impacts related to environmental chemical persistence and bioaccumulation in the food chain. In chemical screening applications, the iF can be predicted using multimedia and multipathway fate and exposure models. One of the sources of iF uncertainty is the natural seasonal variability of the input parameters used in the models, i.e., the physicochemical properties of the pollutant and the landscape and exposure parameters. The objective of this article is to determine the relevance of including seasonal differentiation when assessing iFs in life cycle assessment. This was done by calculating and comparing seasonal iFs with each other and with iFs at 25° C, for both Canadian and global contexts. Two Canadian seasonal models based on the IMPACT 2002 predictive tool, and 2 models for the global context based on the USEtox consensus model were developed to calculate summer and winter iFs. Emissions into air and water and a set of 35 representative organic chemicals were considered. Partition coefficients for seasonal conditions were calculated using an integration of the van't Hoff equation. First-order degradation rate constants were calculated assuming that the rate constant doubles with each 10° C increase in temperature. For Canadian air emissions, results indicated that iFs for winter emissions could be up to 1 to 2 orders of magnitude higher than summer iFs or iFs calculated at 25° C. For Canadian water emissions, results showed that iFs for both summer and winter conditions were, in general, closer to each other with outliers within 1 order of magnitude to iFs calculated at 25° C. Results also indicated that seasonal variability was of lesser importance when assessing iFs within a global context. Because the ranking between chemicals was maintained, it can be concluded that seasonal variability is not relevant within a comparative context. However, this difference might be significant when comparing the magnitude of human toxicity impacts versus other impact categories contributing to human health damages. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2012; 8: 749-759. © 2012 SETAC [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The impacts of the 30 active substances, most used in Costa Rica (reference year 1998), are evaluated using two models originally developed to support comparative assertions in the context of the life cycle assessment: the multimedia fate, exposure and effect model Impact Assessment of Chemical Toxics 2002 (IMPACT 2002), and the Dynamic Model for Pesticides Residues in Plants. Results show that only five active substances – namely diazinon, mancozeb, chlorothalonil, terbutylazine and ethoprophos – contribute to more than 75% of the aquatic ecotoxicity and yet represent less than 40% of the amount used. More than 90% of the human toxicity is generated by only two active substances – namely terbufos and chlorothalonil – whereas they represent less than 10% of the total amount used. Overall, it would be possible to achieve a 90% reduction of human toxicity and a 75% reduction of aquatic ecotoxicity due to pesticide used in Costa Rica, focusing on only a few active substances. For instance, propiconazole or tridemorph could potentially be replaced by chlorothalonil; ametryn, diuron or paraquat by glyphosate; terbufos by cypermethrin; methyl bromide by metam sodium. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]