Assessing the Ecotoxicological Risks of Heavy Metals in Contaminated Sites Using the Life Cycle Impact Assessment Method

Heavy metal pollution has a detrimental impact on both the ecosystem and human health. In order to accurately assess the risk of contamination at a site, it is necessary to conduct sampling and ecological investigations on site, followed by laboratory analysis of contamination concentrations and toxicity. This process also requires the use of various experimental equipment and materials for ecological risk assessment. This study proposes a method for assessing ecological risks at metal-contaminated sites using life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) approaches. LCIA quantifies environmental impacts by multiplying mass-environmental loads with impact characterization factors (CF). This study aimed to develop exposure and effect factors in order to obtain site-specific CFs for metal soil contamination. The ecological risks at two mine sites were then estimated solely based on soil metal concentrations. These estimated risks were compared between sites and with detailed ecological risk results obtained using the TRIAD method. The estimated results were found to be in good agreement with the actual experimental results. This method has the potential to save time, resources, and effort in assessing the ecological risks of metal-contaminated sites. (This work was supported by the Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute (KEITI) funded by the Korea Ministry of Environment (No. 2022002450002)).