Life Cycle profile. The input of the SRA is the Target Application/s as defined in the HS phase. For each application, following the Life Cycle thinking, all steps of the MNM and Application/s, from the production to the end of life, are addressed. This step is similar to the second step of the Nano Risk Framework (Environmental Defense – DuPont, 20071), where nanomaterial’s properties, inherent hazards, and associated exposures profiles are defined for each life cycle step. The considered Life Cycle (LC) steps are material sourcing, production and use, and end-of-life disposal or recycling. The Framework also provides templates of base sets of data to be collected to assess risks of nanomaterials and nano-products. A similar approach is followed in the NANoREG foresight system. To build a life cycle profile of an innovative and potential application is not as building the life cycle profile of an existing product. However, the majority of innovative products are not different than existing products in their use profile. The final function of the product is the same (e.g. a paint), but the inclusion of MNM in the product is done to improve the functionality or add new functions, changing the risk of the product. In some cases, it can be that a nanotechnology/nanomaterial can lead to a completely new product, never placed on the market, with a function that may not be yet available. In this case, it is much more difficult to develop the life cycle profile, since there are no points of reference. Life Cycle description is a common step in recently proposed risk assessment approaches for nanomaterials, therefore there is no need to go into details. For the scope of D6.1, only few indications are given, taking into account that little information on most of the LC is available for innovative MNM and their applications. The four life cycle steps to be considered are: - Production (of MNM and of the product) - Use - Recycling/Disposal For each stage, a description of the MNM properties, application and/or product, and processes and activities to which MNM and application/products are subjected to, is reported, with an indication of the available data. Also, potential targets are identified (e.g. environment). A list of information that could be useful in the subsequent steps of the SRA is reported below. The result of this step is a Life Cycle profile of the Target Application/s, including some basic data useful to build the risk hypotheses. 1 Environmental Defense and DuPont, 20...
Life Cycle profile. The overall simplified life cycle of a hypothetical water filtration membrane can be constructed as follows:
1. Production of graphene or graphene oxide
2. Production of the membrane:
a. Incorporation of graphene oxide into polymers
b. Generation of filter
3. Use (scale)
a. Desalinization (industrial)
b. Water purification (industrial, household)
c. Decontamination (industrial, household)
4. End of life For each step, few considerations are reported in the following paragraph. The scope is to identify information useful for the formulation of the risk hypotheses.
