LCA in Relation to Risk Assessment

Life cycle assessment (LCA) and risk assessment (RA) are both tools used in policy fields to inform environmentally based decisions. As such, there are several areas of overlap, but also fundamental differences in perspectives, methodologies, and decision-making endpoints. One fundamental difference between these two fields is that LCA evaluates and integrates information across multiple impact categories such as water use, climate change, ozone depletion, with the multiimpact considerations meant to avoid burden shifting (e.g., reductions in one impact category lead to increases in other impact categories). RA, on the other hand, is generally limited to a single endpoint such as human or ecosystem health. Although, in some cases RA can be used to assess risks to both of these endpoints. With this in mind, this article begins with a review of key RA principles using human health (HH) RA of chemicals as an example. This will lay the foundation for a thoughtful comparison of HHRA and human toxicity in LCA that will identify both the overlaps and divergences of the two methods. Specific examples of how the tools have been or could possibly be combined are then discussed to illustrate the comprehensiveness such integration can add to decision making.