The human toxicity impact of the chemicals is characterized and presented in Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY) per kg emitted substance. The emitted chemicals are identified and quantified as the ratio of chemicals present. The embedded toxicity in materials, such as concrete, wood, clay, straw, and wood fibreboard, is extracted with Solid Phase Micro Extraction before being analyzed with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The embedded toxicity only affects the people, who are in contact with the product from when it is created until disposal thereby value chain wise including only the use stage, and therefore the users are primarily affected. Another way to assess the toxicity is by the embedded toxicity, which is a new concept, that have been defined in this thesis as the toxicity contained within a product or entity providing a service. The toxicity impact of building materials can be assessed as the toxicological footprint throughout the value chain of a product or entity providing a service, where all emissions occurring are included, which is a term known as embodied toxicity.
However, the reuse and recycling of construction materials also create an issue, since toxic chemicals can be emitted to the environment, which could lead to human health problems such as allergies, reproduction impairment and cancer. The sector is one of the largest resource consumers, where the sectorial waste constitutes one-third of all waste products in Europe. The change from a linear economy to a circular economy has become even more urgent in the last decades for the construction sector, due to rapid urbanization, increasing population and resource depletion. Master Thesis - Environmental Engineering - 2020
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