Insights

This short article concerns the interpretation of the USEtox unit used for the aquatic toxicity impact category used in LCA/PEF. A follow up article will address the use of DALY for the human impact assessment category.

If you've worked at the intersection of Life Cycle Assessment and chemical Risk Assessment, you've probably heard this debate: 👉 LCA practitioners think RA misses the bigger picture : cumulative effects of thousands of chemicals and long-term low-dose impacts that single-substance assessment cannot capture. 👉 Risk assessors argue USEtox scores have no proven link to actual human & ecosystem harm—and that only substance-by-substance RA can truly protect human health and the environment.