Do Impact Factors such as human toxicity include financial data (are they meant to be multiplied by spend values)?

Question

I am wondering if these factors that are coming out of the calculation are meant to be directly multiplied by the spend data (in euros)? Or do they need be translated using another factor to euros per kg ? For which year are these impact factors defined?

Answer 1

Hi, LCA impact categories such as Human Toxicity (e.g., from methods like USEtox), never include financial data and are not meant to be multiplied by spend values (euros). I am not sure what you are referring to and maybe LCA is the wrong method here. 

Sounds more like you are looking for a combination of LCC (spend values) and assessment of externality (environmental) costs? However, you can calculate the cost of externatilies using monetary valuation coefficients by Gama Caldas et al. 2024. This would mean for the EF method that you multiply the results of the human toxicity 1.66 x 10⁵ (cancer) €/CTUh and 9.19 x 10⁵ (cancer) €/CTUh. Those values are referenced to 2019.