title: Freshwater ecotoxicity characterisation factor for metal oxide nanoparticles: a case study on titanium dioxide nanoparticle.
abstract: The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology is widely applied in several industrial sectors to evaluate the environmental performance of processes, products and services. Recently, several reports and studies have emphasized the importance of LCA in the field of engineered nanomaterials. However, to date only a few LCA studies on nanotechnology have been carried out, and fewer still have assessed aspects relating to ecotoxicity. This is mainly due to the lack of knowledge in relation on human and environmental exposure and effect of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs). This bottleneck is continued when performing Life Cycle Impact Assessment, where characterization models and consequently characterization factors (CFs) for ENPs are missing. This paper aims to provide the freshwater ecotoxicity CF for titanium dioxide nanoparticles (nano-TiO₂). The USEtox model has been selected as a characterisation model. An adjusted multimedia fate model has been developed which accounts for nano-specific fate process descriptors (i.e. sedimentation, aggregation with suspended particle matter, etc.) to estimate the fate of nano-TiO₂ in freshwater. A literature survey of toxicity tests performed on freshwater organism representative of multiple trophic levels was conducted, including algae, crustaceans and fish in order to collect relevant EC₅₀ values. Then, the toxic effect of nano-TiO₂ was computed on the basis of the HC₅₀ value. Thus, following the principle of USEtox model and accounting for nano-specific descriptors a CF for the toxic impact of freshwater ecotoxicity of 0.28 PAFdaym(3)kg(-1) is proposed.
authors.affiliation: Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), Technology & Society Lab (TSL), Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, CH-9014 ST. GALLEN, Switzerland; Interdepartmental Research Centre for Environmental Sciences (CIRSA), University of Bologna, via S. Alberto 163, 48123 Ravenna, Italy. Electronic address: Beatrice.salieri@empa.ch.
authors.forename: Beatrice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Salieri
authors.affiliation: Interdepartmental Research Centre for Environmental Sciences (CIRSA), University of Bologna, via S. Alberto 163, 48123 Ravenna, Italy.
authors.forename: Serena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Righi
authors.affiliation: Interdepartmental Research Centre for Environmental Sciences (CIRSA), University of Bologna, via S. Alberto 163, 48123 Ravenna, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pasteris
authors.affiliation: Department of Management Engineering (DTU-MAN), Quantitative Sustainability Section (QSA), Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark.
authors.forename: Stig Irving
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Olsen
mesh_terms: D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000633:toxicity*; D014025:Titanium / Q000633:toxicity*; D018675:Toxicity Tests; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; C009495:titanium dioxide; D014025:Titanium
keywords: Characterisation factor; Freshwater ecotoxicity; LCA; Titanium dioxide nanoparticle