Premium
Uncertainty in msPAF‐based ecotoxicological effect factors for freshwater ecosystems in life cycle impact assessment
Author(s) -
van Zelm Rosalie,
Huijbregts Mark AJ,
Harbers Jasper V,
Wintersen Arjen,
Struijs Jaap,
Posthuma Leo,
van de Meent Dik
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
integrated environmental assessment and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.665
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1551-3793
pISSN - 1551-3777
DOI - 10.1897/ieam_2006-013.1
Subject(s) - environmental science , life cycle assessment , freshwater ecosystem , ecosystem , ecotoxicology , environmental resource management , ecology , biology , production (economics) , economics , macroeconomics
Ecotoxicological effect factors are part of the analysis of relative impacts by chemical contaminants on ecosystems. Uncertainty distributions, represented by the 90% confidence interval, belonging to ecotoxicological effect factors for freshwater ecosystems were determined. This study includes 869 high production volume chemicals, related to 7 nonspecific toxic modes of action (TMoAs). The ecotoxicological effect factors are divided into a TMoA‐specific part and a chemical‐specific part. The 90% confidence interval of the TMoA‐specific part of the effect factor ranges from 23 orders of magnitude for acrylate toxicity to 2 orders of magnitude for nonpolar narcosis. The range in the TMoA‐specific part of the effect factor is mainly caused by uncertainty in the spread in toxic sensitivity between species (σ j ). Average uncertainty in the chemical‐specific part of the effect factors depends on the number of species tested and ranges on average from a factor of 5 for more than 3 species tested to a factor of about 1,000 for 2 species tested. Average uncertainty in the ecotoxicological effect factors ranges from a factor of 100 for more than 3 species tested to a factor of nearly 10,000 for 2 species tested. It is recommended that the ecotoxicological effect factor of a chemical is based on toxicity data of at least 4 species.