REFINEMENT OF IMPACT ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGIES TO SOLVE THE GLOBAL-DOUBLE-LEFT-RIGHT-ARROW-LOCAL CONTROVERSY IN PRODUCT LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT - RELAIS TYPE MICRO-A AS AN EXAMPLE FOR A LONG-LIVED PRODUCT

For most life-cycle impact assessments global-type stressors only are selected and organized into the respective impact categories, mainly d ue to the fact, that the life-cycle inventory results in aggregated in formation an loadings but not on site-specific concentrations. With re spect to the local-type impact category ''ecotoxicity'' two differentl y in-depth approaches have been developed: The screening approach resu lts in potential ecological loadings. The in-depth approach additional ly analyses the character of emission sources and uses a scoring syste m for the effects assessment. A second local double left right arrow g lobal problem might arise when assessing long-lived products. They oft en comprise global-type, unspecific and also specific-type, geographic ally defined stages along their life-cycle. Possibilities and limitati ons in aggregating the results from both types - also accounting for s everal LCA applications such as product comparison and identification of improvement options - are presented. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.