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An Approach to Integrating Occupational Safety and Health into Life Cycle Assessment: Development and Application of Work Environment Characterization Factors.

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Title: An Approach to Integrating Occupational Safety and Health into Life Cycle Assessment: Development and Application of Work Environment Characterization Factors.
Authors: Scanlon, Kelly A., Lloyd, Shannon M., Gray, George M., Francis, Royce A., LaPuma, Peter
Source: Journal of Industrial Ecology. Feb2015, Vol. 19 Issue 1, p27-37. 11p.
Subjects: Industrial hygiene research, Industrial safety, Health impact assessment, Work environment research, Quality-adjusted life years
Abstract: Integrating occupational safety and health (OSH) into life cycle assessment (LCA) may provide decision makers with insights and opportunities to prevent burden shifting of human health impacts between the nonwork environment and the work environment. We propose an integration approach that uses industry-level work environment characterization factors (WE-CFs) to convert industry activity into damage to human health attributable to the work environment, assessed as disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). WE-CFs are ratios of work-related fatal and nonfatal injuries and illnesses occurring in the U.S. worker population to the amount of physical output from U.S. industries; they represent workplace hazards and exposures and are compatible with the life cycle inventory (LCI) structure common to process-based LCA. A proof of concept demonstrates application of the WE-CFs in an LCA of municipal solid waste landfill and incineration systems. Results from the proof of concept indicate that estimates of DALYs attributable to the work environment are comparable in magnitude to DALYs attributable to environmental emissions. Construction and infrastructure-related work processes contributed the most to the work environment DALYs. A sensitivity analysis revealed that uncertainty in the physical output from industries had the most effect on the WE-CFs. The results encourage implementation of WE-CFs in future LCA studies, additional refinement of LCI processes to accurately capture industry outputs, and inclusion of infrastructure-related processes in LCAs that evaluate OSH impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Journal of Industrial Ecology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Industrial+hygiene+research%22">Industrial hygiene research</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Industrial+safety%22">Industrial safety</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Health+impact+assessment%22">Health impact assessment</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Work+environment+research%22">Work environment research</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Quality-adjusted+life+years%22">Quality-adjusted life years</searchLink>
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  Data: Integrating occupational safety and health (OSH) into life cycle assessment (LCA) may provide decision makers with insights and opportunities to prevent burden shifting of human health impacts between the nonwork environment and the work environment. We propose an integration approach that uses industry-level work environment characterization factors (WE-CFs) to convert industry activity into damage to human health attributable to the work environment, assessed as disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). WE-CFs are ratios of work-related fatal and nonfatal injuries and illnesses occurring in the U.S. worker population to the amount of physical output from U.S. industries; they represent workplace hazards and exposures and are compatible with the life cycle inventory (LCI) structure common to process-based LCA. A proof of concept demonstrates application of the WE-CFs in an LCA of municipal solid waste landfill and incineration systems. Results from the proof of concept indicate that estimates of DALYs attributable to the work environment are comparable in magnitude to DALYs attributable to environmental emissions. Construction and infrastructure-related work processes contributed the most to the work environment DALYs. A sensitivity analysis revealed that uncertainty in the physical output from industries had the most effect on the WE-CFs. The results encourage implementation of WE-CFs in future LCA studies, additional refinement of LCI processes to accurately capture industry outputs, and inclusion of infrastructure-related processes in LCAs that evaluate OSH impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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  Data: <i>Copyright of Journal of Industrial Ecology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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        Value: 10.1111/jiec.12146
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        Text: English
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      – SubjectFull: Health impact assessment
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              Text: Feb2015
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