Monetary estimates of human health impacts in weighting sets : The case of EcoValue

Sammanfattning: Chemicals and other potentially toxic substances have been released into nature at an increasing rate. Research on how they affect people and what damage they cause have developed rapidly in recent years, creating opportunities to better describe the consequences of emissions to nature. This thesis uses the latest advances in the field to update the EcoValue weighting tool. EcoValue can be used to convert quantitative amounts of emissions into monetary units. How this is done, the main uses and the background to weighting are addressed. Toxicity to humans is evaluated in previous EcoValue methods using a reference value: kg 1,4-Dicholorobenzene. The cost of society per kg of 1,4-Dichlorobenzene released is used as a "weighting factor". The weighting factor is then used as a multiplication factor, where the total kg of 1,4-Dichlorobenzene equivalents is multiplied by the cost per kg of emissions. In this thesis, a new value of cost per kg of 1,4-Dichlorobenzene equivalents has been determined through damage cost estimates. This was done by transferring the results of studies already carried out to costs per kg of 1,4-Dichlorobenzene. The updated version of EcoValue was then tested thorugh application to a previously published LCA study. The results were compared with EcoValue results without the updated damage cost for 1,4-Dichlorobenzene and results when using the EcoTax weighting tool. The suggested weight values are 2.1 €2017 per kg 1.4 DB equivalents, with a possible range between 0.09-6.996 €2017 per kg.