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Tom et al. (Environ Syst Decis 1–12, 2015) compared the energy requirements, water footprint, and greenhouse gas emissions of diet regimens recently recommended by the US Department of Agriculture. This editorial comments on a number of challenges related to the use of the results of life-cycle assessment studies to quantify the environmental impacts of dietary shifts.

In this study, we compared the Sol-Char sanitation system with an Anaerobic Digestion (AD) system using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate their environmental impacts. Since both systems offer opportunities for human waste treatment and resource recovery, understanding their performance is crucial. This comparison aims to determine their environmental impacts while considering diverse factors, such as energy production and nutrient recovery. The Sol-Char system demonstrated a superior life-cycle environmental performance, showing two to five times lower impacts in categories such as Climate Change (e.g., 127 kg CO₂-eq for the Sol-Char system while that 592 kg CO₂-eq for the AD system), Non-Renewable Energy Resources, Ionizing Radiation, Land Use, and Water Use. Both systems exhibited significant potential for resource recovery, with the Sol-Char system producing biochar and disinfected urine, and the AD system generating electricity, heat, and digestate. Updated LCA results, after byproduct application, indicated that both systems potentially have a net positive environmental impact (both with reductions exceeding -500 kg CO₂-eq per day). Nutrient recovery simulations using SAmpSONS2 revealed that the AD system performed better when utilizing multiple biomass sources. The nitrogen content in the solids was 20.25 kg/day after AD and 3.75 kg/day for the Sol-Char system. Our results highlight the Sol-Char system is a viable sanitation solution in rural areas. However, the study also identified key challenges, including the absence of uncertainty analysis and the need for a standardized framework that enables more consistent evaluations and comparisons across diverse sanitation systems and contexts., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Solid waste management in low- and middle-income countries like India faces significant challenges due to the increasing waste generation that surpasses the current capacity. Therefore, the informal waste sector (IWS) is more vital than ever in handling consumer waste alongside municipal solid waste management (SWM) systems. However, the integration of the IWS into formal waste management systems remains unresolved due to adverse social and economic conditions. This study focuses on identifying the root causes that hinder the integration of the IWS in India's waste management system, using the city of Chennai as a case study. Adopting an institutional perspective, we analyse the institutional landscape of the waste management system, considering both formal rules (in policy documents) and informal rules (i.e., social norms and routines). The institutional network analysis reveals a significant misalignment in perceptions among governance levels concerning the integration of the IWS. The study shows a considerable gap between rules-in-form and rules-in-use, leading to 1) Preclusion of waste pickers in collecting door-to-door source-segregated waste (i.e., recyclables). 2) Unfair pricing in transactions with small aggregators. 3) Lack of ID cards for waste pickers. These barriers are ultimately rooted in caste discrimination, misalignment between governance levels, and the exclusion of waste pickers in the policymaking process. In conclusion, understanding and rectifying the institutional gaps and discriminatory practices are essential steps towards effectively integrating the IWS in India's waste management system, promoting a more inclusive and sustainable approach to waste management., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Psychopathic personality traits have been linked to low physiological arousal, particularly among high risk and forensic samples. A core indicator of physiological arousal is the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis; however, findings of a link between HPA axis functioning and psychopathic personality traits have been inconsistent. Furthermore, given sex differences in both HPA axis responsivity and psychopathic personality traits, the association may be expected to differ between men and women. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between HPA axis responsivity in mid-adolescence and psychopathic personality traits in early adulthood and determine whether the association was moderated by sex. We examined this link in a general population sample of twins (N = 556). Adolescents participated in a psychosocial stress task during which samples of salivary cortisol were collected (11-15 years) and reported psychopathic personality traits using the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (19-20 years). Multilevel linear regression models were estimated in which psychopathic personality traits (boldness, meanness and disinhibition), and their interactions with sex, were regressed on HPA axis responsivity. The study was pre-registered on the Open Science Framework (osf.io/gs2a8). Preliminary analyses showed that cortisol levels did not increase significantly during the stressor task but decreased during recovery. Results showed that there was no association between HPA axis responsivity in mid-adolescence and psychopathic personality traits in early adulthood. The associations were not moderated by sex. Findings suggest that HPA axis responsivity in mid-adolescence did not serve as a biological marker for psychopathic personality traits among young adults from the general population., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The Safe by Design (SbD) concept aims to ensure the production, use and disposal of materials and products safely. While there is a growing interest in the potential of SbD to support policy commitments, such as the EU Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan in Europe, methodological approaches and practical guidelines on SbD are, however, largely missing. The combined use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Risk Assessment (RA) is considered suitable to operationalize SbD over the whole life-cycle of a product. Here, we explore the potential of the combined use of LCA and RA at Technological Readiness Level (TRL) 1-6. We perform a review of the literature presenting and/or developing approaches that combine LCA and RA at early stages of product design. We identify that basic early-on-evaluations of safety (e.g., apply lifecycle thinking to assess risk hotspots, avoid use of hazardous chemicals, minimize other environmental impacts from chemicals) are more common, while more complex assessments (e.g., ex-ante LCA, control banding, predictive (eco)toxicology) require specialized expertise. The application of these simplified approaches and guidelines aims to avoid some obvious sources of risks and impacts at early stages. Critical gaps need to be addressed for wider application of SbD, including more studies in the product design context, developing tools and databases containing collated information on risk, greater collaboration between RA/LCA researchers and companies, and policy discussion on the expansion from SbD to Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD)., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:Jeroen Guinee and Vrishali Subramanian report financial support was provided by Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. Carlos F. Blanco reports financial support was provided by Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant agreement No 875637)., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

A large part of the world population is exposed to noise levels that are unhealthy. Yet noise is often neglected when impact assessment studies are conducted and when policy interventions are designed. In this study, we provide a way to calculate the noise footprint of citizens directly determined by their use of private and public transport on land. The study combines the results of the large transport simulation model MATSim applied to Switzerland, with a noise characterization model, N-LCA, developed in the context of life cycle assessment. MATSim results allow tracking the use of private and public transportation by agents in the model. The results after characterization provide a consumption-based noise footprint, thus the total noise and impacts that are caused by the private mobility demand of the citizens of Switzerland. Our results confirm that road transportation is the largest contributor to the total noise footprint of land-based mobility. We also included a scenario with a full transition to an electrified car fleet, which showed the potential for the reduction of impacts, particularly in urban areas, by about 55% as compared to the modeled regime with combustion engines., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2019 The Authors. Journal of Industrial Ecology, published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc., on behalf of Yale University.)

It is now common practice in environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) to conduct sensitivity analyses to identify critical parameters and prioritize further research. Typical approaches include variation of input parameters one at a time to determine the corresponding variation in characterized midpoints or normalized and weighted end points. Generally, those input parameters that cause the greatest variations in output criteria are accepted as the most important subjects of further investigation. However, in comparative LCA of emerging technologies, the typical approach to sensitivity analysis may misdirect research and development (R&D) toward addressing uncertainties that are inconsequential or counterproductive. This paper presents a novel method of sensitivity analysis for a decision-driven, anticipatory LCA of three emerging photovoltaic (PV) technologies: amorphous-Si (a-Si), CdTe and ribbon-Si. Although traditional approaches identify metal depletion as critical, a hypothetical reduction of uncertainty in metal depletion fails to improve confidence in the environmental comparison. By contrast, the novel approach directs attention toward marine eutrophication, where uncertainty reduction significantly improves decision confidence in the choice between a-Si and CdTe. The implication is that the novel method will result in better recommendations on the choice of the environmentally preferable emerging technology alternative for commercialization.

To define consistent strategies for managing the environmental sustainability of chemicals, it is important to quantify the magnitude of their emissions and their associated impacts. Not all countries monitor and report emissions related to their activities. This is particularly the case for chemical emissions, whose toxic impacts on human health and ecosystems cannot be readily determined because of gaps in the available data. Emission data that can be retrieved from publicly available databases are typically restricted to a limited number of toxic substances, for a few countries, or for aggregated regions. Extrapolation strategies are thus needed to fill in those data gaps and to move from the consideration of single countries or regions to the world scale. Little is known about how effective these strategies are in extrapolating emissions. With the use of emission data available in public databases in the world, the current work explores different opportunities to compile representative inventories of toxic emissions. In this study, we build global and European emission inventories using three extrapolation proxies, namely the gross domestic product, the emissions of carbon dioxide, and the emissions of mercury. The three proxies are compared and their efficacies are tested statistically to identify the best performer for specific classes of substances. The potential impacts associated with the emissions in the European and global inventory are further tested by using an impact system adopted for the comparative assessment of chemicals in the field of life cycle assessment.

Purpose: Several damages have been associated with the exposure of human beings to noise. These include auditory effects, i.e., hearing impairment, but also non-auditory physiological ones such as hypertension and ischemic heart disease, or psychological ones such as annoyance, depression, sleep disturbance, limited performance of cognitive tasks or inadequate cognitive development. Noise can also interfere with intended activities, both in daytime and nighttime. ISO 14'040 also indicated the necessity of introducing noise, together with other less developed impact categories, in a complete LCA study, possibly changing the results of many LCA studies already available. The attempts available in the literature focused on the integration of transportation noise in LCA. Although being considered the most frequent source of intrusive impact, transportation noise is not the only type of noise that can have a malign impact on public health. Several other sources of noise such as industrial or occupational need to be taken into account to have a complete consideration of noise into LCA. Major life cycle inventories (LCI) typically do not contain data on noise emissions yet and characterisation factors are not yet clearly defined. The aim of the present paper is to briefly review what is already available in the field and propose a new framework for the consideration of human health impacts of any type of noise that could be of interest in the LCA practice, providing indications for the introduction of noise in LCI and analysing what data is already available and, in the form of a research agenda, what other resources would be needed to reach a complete coverage of the problem., Main Features: The literature production related to the impacts of noise on human health has been analysed, with considerations of impacts caused by transportation noise as well as occupational and industrial noise. The analysis of the specialist medical literature allowed for a better understanding of how to deal with the epidemiological findings from an LCA perspective and identify areas still missing dose-response relations. A short review of the state-of-science in the field of noise and LCA is presented with an expansion to other contributions in the field subsequent to the comprehensive work by Althaus et al. (2009a; 2009b). Focusing on the analogy between toxicological analysis of pollutants and noise impact evaluation, an alternative approach is suggested, which is oriented to the consideration of any type of noise in LCA and not solely of transportation noise. A multi-step framework is presented as a method for the inclusion of noise impacts on human health in LCA., Results and Discussion: A theoretical structural framework for the inclusion of noise impacts in LCA is provided as a basis for future modelling expansions in the field. Rather than evaluating traffic/transportation noise, the method focuses on the consideration of the noise level and its impact on human health, regardless of the source producing the noise in an analogous manner as considered in the fields of toxicology and common noise evaluation practices combined. The resulting framework will constitute the basis for the development of a more detailed mathematical model for the inclusion of noise in LCA. The toxicological background and the experience of the analysis of the release of chemicals in LCA seem to provide sufficient ground for the inclusion of noise in LCA: taken into account the physical differences and the uniqueness of noise as an impact, the procedure applied to the release of chemicals during a product life cycle is key for a valuable inclusion of noise in the LCA logic., Conclusions: It is fundamental for the development of research in the field of LCA and noise to consider any type of noise. Further studies are needed to contribute to the inclusion of noise sources and noise impacts in LCA. In this paper, a structure is proposed that will be expanded and adapted in the future and which forms the basic framework for the successive modelling phase.