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This chapter deals with the use of the nanoscale in the production of food and packaging as well as medical equipment and materials. On the nanoscale, materials behave differently from their macroscale counterparts. In the case of food and packaging, this is especially important because nanoscale materials may have undesirable effects on human health. The use of the nanoscale in medical products, such as medicines and hospital equipment, may also affect human health. In addition, nanoscale materials may have unknown environmental effects. In the United States and the European Union , legal standards produced mainly by regulatory agencies are already in place. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has also produced several directive and regulatory documents. Such regulatory texts may serve as an inspiration to assist other countries where specific nanoregulation does not yet exist, such as Brazil. Therefore, based on bibliographic research, this chapter builds a framework model relating established legal standards with NanoAction principles and the principles and rules already in force in Brazil. This third corpus—of Brazilian rules and principles—does not explicitly mention nanotechnologies, nanomaterials, or nanoparticles. However, its content can be associated with specific NanoAction principles as well as the legal standards instituted by the United States, European Union , and the OECD. Thus, a normative model emerges that can serve to regulate the entire life cycle of nanomaterials, even without legislative prognosis currently in force. In its totality, this chapter opens a space in which research structures a “regulatory environment” with plural sources and the participation of various social actors involved with the world on a nanoscale.

Green materials are an emerging solution for reducing waste and pollution. Various studies show that green materials have reached every aspect of product design, which covers the entire life cycle of a product from conceptual design to disposal, causing a minimal adverse impact on the environment by the optimized use of resources. Green materials-based products have the target to minimize the effects of human actions on the environment and ecosystem. Nevertheless, the production of biocompatible composites with the necessary hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity, adhesion, affinity, and mechanical properties pose significant challenges. These issues have, to an extent, been addressed through nanotechnological interventions. Nanobiopolymers have shown immense potential in the biomedical, food, and electronic industries and it may be justly expected that further research into advanced green nanocomposites may be the solution to waste management, pollution control, and lower cost of production. This chapter highlights the future aspects and prospects of green materials toward sustainable production and recycling. To save the environment and reduce the product cost, green materials are essential for sustainable development for the current global issues.

Despite the increasing significance of embodied impacts of buildings, efforts to reduce their environmental footprints have been concentrated on the operational impacts of buildings. This study investigates the changing significance of embodied carbon over the entire life cycle of whole buildings. A case study of an office building was modelled with Revit, and sensitivity analyses of the modelled building were performed by varying the material specification and energy use pattern for seven other typologies. Using Revit, BIMWASTE tool, ATHENA Impact Estimator and Green Building Studio, comparative life-cycle analyses were carried out for the eight building typologies. The study suggests that notwithstanding the enormous impacts of the operational stage on life-cycle carbon of fossil fuel-based buildings, embodied impacts could vary between 8.4 and 22.3%. A key determinant of the proportional impacts of embodied energy is the nature of materials used for building construction. Similarly, embodied impacts of buildings become more significant and could contribute up to 60% of their life cycle impacts as they become more energy-efficient during their operational stage. As the study confirms the varying significance of embodied energy as construction materials and energy use patterns change, it implies the need for policy measures based on a whole life assessment methodology, instead of the usual ways of giving sole importance to the operational impacts of buildings. With buildings becoming more energy-efficient during their operational stage, there is an urgent need for an increased focus on the embodied impacts of buildings, especially as renewable energy resources are becoming widely adopted.

Packaging is a major component in the development of drug formulations in the pharmaceutical industry. There is a close relationship between a pharmaceutical formulation and its package and it is a major concern too from the drug stability and safety point of view. The packaging of pharmaceutical products is an integral part of product development which keeps the product stable during its entire life cycle. Packaging imparts luster, identification, and protection of a product from environmental and transportation stress. Different types of packaging materials are available for the various pharmaceutical dosage forms. With recent advancements in the field of packaging technology, there is a continuous requirement to upgrade the packaging methodologies to meet the demand of the market and user-friendly packaging. This chapter includes different types of packaging material including container and closure, ideal characteristics of packaging material, tamper-resistant packaging including bubble pack, blister pack, film wrapper, tape seals, and evaluation parameters for different packaging materials. Advanced technologies in pharmaceutical packaging including blow–fill–seal technology; child-resistant packaging is also covered in this chapter.

This chapter explores the role of stewardship in the reduction of environmental and human health risks from health-care-specific contaminants in the environment, focusing in particular on pharmaceuticals. In the absence of a full understanding of environmental effects, stewardship approaches have much to offer and can be applied along the entire life cycle of a drug, from design to its release into the environment. While “green pharmacy” appears a worthwhile pursuit in the long term and advanced wastewater treatment technologies are increasingly being considered, it is in particular in the health-care domain that stewardship—both as stewardship toward one's own health and through discerning use of pharmaceuticals—has the potential to deliver positive environmental, health, and financial outcomes. While environmental stewardship of pharmaceuticals can be driven by policy, education, and facilitation, a reexamination of our attitude to health and our relationship with pharmaceuticals is required to curb the trend of ever-increasing use of medicines.

Accurate identification and evaluation of exposure/emissions along the entire life cycle of complex inorganic materials is crucial to ensure that the potentially associated environmental and health risks are properly managed. The evaluation of exposure/emissions shall cover the workplace (occupational exposure), the different environmental compartments (environmental exposure), the general population exposed to such materials indirectly via air, food, or drinking water or directly as potential consumers of preparations or goods containing such materials. This chapter describes the key elements of relevance when assessing exposure to complex inorganic materials (variability, speciation, physical form), including some general principles aiming at preventing/reducing exposure/emissions.

International Scientific Confer ence “Environmental and Climate Technologies”, CONECT 2017, 10–12 May 2017, Riga, Latvia International Scientific Conference “Environmental and Climate Technologies”, CONECT 2017, 10–12 May 2017, Riga, Latvia This article compares the environmental and energy performance of a novel Building Added Concentrating Photovoltaic (BACPV) system to a conventional Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) system through their entire life cycle. We have found that the overall life cycle environmental impact of the BACPV system is a factor of 1.5 lower than that of the BIPV system. Referring to the energy profile, the Energy Payback Time of the BACPV system has been estimated as 1.0 year, while that of the BIPV system has been estimated as 2.2 years. Similarly, the Energy Return Factor is 32 for the BACPV system and 14 for the BIPV system. Additionally, suggestions for improvements for the BACPV system are proposed. This is mainly summarized in modifying the design through replacing some system components. This work was fully funded by the project ENE2010-18357 under g rant reference BES-2009-028293 by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Madrid, Spain).

Solvents often cause the greatest environmental impacts of a process or product because the mass of solvent is greater than the mass of all other components combined. The greenest solvent is the solvent that makes the product or process have the least environmental impact over its entire life cycle. A solvent may be green for one application and not for another. Classes of solvents include water, organic solvents, supercritical fluids, gas-expanded liquids, ionic liquids, liquid polymers, deep eutectic solvents, and switchable solvents.

This study presents a method based on life cycle assessment to reduce and simplify the decision-making process and to identify the best available techniques of a product. This procedure facilitates the selection of a technical alternative from an environmental point of view and the reduction of emission levels and the consumption of energy and primary resources. This method comprises the following four steps: (i) the identification of the current techniques of a specific product, (ii) the application of a life cycle assessment to determine the hot spots, (iii) the proposal of the best available techniques and (iv) the development of a best available techniques reference document (step not implemented in our case study). The Cantabrian anchovy canning industry is selected as a case study due to the importance of this sector from economic, social and touristic points of view. An entire life cycle assessment of one can of anchovies in extra virgin olive oil is conducted. The results indicated that the hot spots of the life cycle were the production of aluminium cans (for packaging) and extra virgin olive oil and the management of the packaging waste. According to these results, the study proposes several improvements, such as packaging recycling and several best available techniques for the canned anchovy product. The authors thank the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish Government for their financial support via the project GeSAC-Conserva: Sustainable Management of the Cantabrian Anchovies (CTM2013-43539-R) and to Julia Celaya for her technical support. Jara Laso thanks the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spanish Government for their financial support via the research fellowship BES2014-069368. Pere Fullana y Alba Bala thanks the UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change.

This chapter summarizes an extensive literature on heat island effects and cool pavements to identify: potential technologies and strategies for cool pavements, key questions and what research has addressed them, and gaps in research and knowledge. Several potential strategies to make pavements cooler with various cooling mechanisms are summarized based on the review of existing research and literature. Economic analysis and environmental assessment are discussed, which should be performed over the entire life cycle of cool pavements with appropriate system boundaries to ensure a net benefit, both economically and environmentally. A number of major research and knowledge gaps regarding the environmental and engineering performance of cool pavements, as well as economic performance and implementation and policy issues, are identified from the literature review and summarized.

A life cycle assessment (LCA) is the only method which evaluates the environmental impact of a product over its entire life cycle. It is an holistic approach which takes into account all the activities involved in the creation of a product such as raw material extraction, manufacturing, transportation and distribution, use and disposal. It is therefore able to evaluate all the different potential types of environmental impact associated with a product. This chapter discusses the history and basic principles of LCA, measurement methods and models for LCA and the standards governing a LCA study. It also discusses the key challenges of conducting a LCA study.

A comprehensive life cycle assessment of asphalt pavements was conducted including hot mix asphalt (HMA), warm mix asphalt (WMA) with the addition of synthetic zeolites, and asphalt mixes with reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). The environmental impacts associated with energy consumption and air emissions were assessed, as well as other environmental impacts resulting from the extraction and processing of minerals, binders and chemical additives; asphalt production; transportation of materials; asphalt paving; road traffic on the pavement; land use; dismantling of the pavement at the end-of-life and its landfill disposal or recycling. Monte Carlo simulations were also conducted to take into account the variability of critical input parameters. Taking into account the entire life cycle, the impacts of zeolite-based WMA pavements were almost equal to the impacts of HMA pavements with the same RAP content. The reduction in the impacts of WMA resulting from the lowering of the manufacturing temperature was offset by the greater impacts of the materials used, especially the impacts of the synthetic zeolites. Moreover, by comparing asphalt mixes with different RAP contents, it was shown that the impacts of asphalt mixes were significantly reduced when RAP was added. All endpoint impacts as well as climate change, fossil depletion and total cumulative energy demand were decreased by 13–14% by adding 15% RAP. A key advantage of WMA is the potentially greater use of RAP. Thus, the decrease in the impacts achieved by adding large amounts of RAP to WMA could turn these asphalt mixes into a good alternative to HMA in environmental terms.

Life cycle Assessment (LCA) is the quantitative environmental assessment of a product over its entire life cycle, which includes raw material acquisition, production, transportation, use and disposal. This chapter provides an overview of the different applications of LCA and of the methodology. The more critical methodological issues and choices are discussed at some depth, after which examples are given of the ways in which methodological choices relate to application. The chapter is concluded by the presentation of a number of more recent trends in LCA methodology.

Publisher Summary The risks connected with chemical substances have been assessed in a number of conventions that have aimed to apply restrictions on the use of dangerous chemicals and control of their worldwide trade. The developments in chemicals policy at the European and world level are discussed, with an insight into the interlaced structure of international cooperation that exists at both the political and the technical level. Numerous toxic substances present risks and hazards that occur during the entire life cycle of a substance: during production, during transport and trade, and during storage, use, and disposal. Awareness of environmental and health risks has grown over the last 20 years. Today this is making itself felt in an increasingly complex set of international regulations on chemical safety. The focus is increasingly shifting towards the developing countries and their populations, as people there are less aware of the risks and hazards than those in the industrialized countries. Today the worldwide spread of persistent, bio-accumulating, and toxic chemicals by air or water, their occurrence in places where they are not used, and the destruction of the ozone layer are making it clear to everyone that chemical safety is an international challenge and not just an empty phrase.

Publisher Summary Ecodesign constitutes a fundamental redefinition of building and urban design. The abandoning of the design paradigms inherited from the age of oil is distinguished from the previous performance and hardware-driven approaches to building augmentation, to fundamentally re-examine the climatic, material and biological framework of cities, infrastructure, and buildings. Ecodesign is design for bio-integration. It can be regarded as having three facets: physical, systemic and temporal. Addressing each of these facets successfully is the challenge of building and urban designers. Natural ecosystems have no waste; everything is recycled within. Thus by imitating natural ecosystems, the built environment should produce no waste; all emissions and products would be continuously reused or recycled and eventually reintegrated with the natural environment. Designing to imitate ecosystems is ecomimesis. This is the fundamental premise for ecodesign. Ecodesign should be viewed as the design of the built environment as just one system within the natural environment. The system's existence has ecological consequences; the way it functions and interacts with other systems over its entire life cycle must be benignly integrated with the natural environment. Ecosystems are definable units in a biosphere; as such they should contain both biotic (living) and abiotic (non life-supporting) constituents acting together as a whole. The enormous number of existing buildings as well as the current manufacturing and processing activities are making the biosphere more and more inorganic and increasingly simplified biologically.

The work presented here uses a library of behavior models of system components as a core for supportive tools for several work processes during the life cycle. Models of complex systems can be automatically composed from such library elements and provide the basis for the automated generation, instead of programming, of diagnostics and fault analysis. The feasibility of this model-based methodology is illustrated by case studies in the automotive and aeronautics industry. This includes a demonstrator for the automated generation of on-board diagnostics for a vehicle system. The same model basis is used to perform other tasks, such as failure-modes-and-effects analysis, diagnosability analysis, and the generation of tests.

Publisher Summary This chapter explores the energy conservation measures. It has three primary objectives. First it introduces some basic ideas about energy conservation. The purpose of energy conservation is to use less energy. This is accomplished by various methods, including recycling energy where useful. Energy conservation should be part of the entire life cycle of a building. Thus, it should be a consideration during the initial conception of a building, through its construction, during the operation and maintenance of the building throughout its life, and even in deconstruction. The chapter introduces ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2004, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings1 (Standard 90.1). This standard, produced cooperatively by ASHRAE and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, is becoming the minimum standard for new buildings in the United States. There are four ways in which HVAC systems can be designed to use less energy. It explains energy conservation and some basic ways of thinking about it and outlines the contents of Standard 90.1. The equipment and operation of the heat wheel, heat pipe, and runaround methods of heat recovery are described along with the process of evaporative cooling. The chapter also emphasizes and explains the significance of building pressure.

Publisher Summary Polar fishes feed, grow, and reproduce at low temperature, making them an important model for understanding temperature adaptation. Other fish may survive cold winters, but polar fish conduct their entire life cycle in frigid water. This chapter discusses the physiology or function of the nervous system and the sensory organs of polar fishes. It addresses the issue of temperature adaptation in the nervous system and discusses what is special about the neurophysiology of fish from stenothermal arctic and antarctic environments, what themes are common to both groups, and how the polar species differ from fishes that are more eurythermal yet can acclimatize to severe cold. The extent to which antarctic fish have optimized their critical cellular and neural systems to operate at subzero temperatures is reflected in their extreme stenothermy. This chapter discusses antarctic species rather than arctic species.

The influence of lipid and proteins on the wear behaviour of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) used in joint prostheses was examined by using multidirectional sliding pin-on-plate wear testers. In vivo wear behaviour of polyethylene components should be controlled to maintain the joint performance throughout the entire life cycle of artificial joints. However, there are many uncertainties about the wear mechanism of UHMWPE, especially about the effect of physiological environment. The physiological environment contains various kinds of biological molecules, such as proteins and lipids etc. These molecules can be entrained into a contact zone and possibly affect the friction and wear process of artificial joints. The aim of the current study is to examine the effects of proteins and lipids on the UHMWPE wear behaviour for better understanding of in vivo polyethylene wear process. The wear behaviour of UHMWPE on a stainless steel sliding pair for joint prostheses was evaluated by using our multidirectional sliding pin-on-plate wear testers, which can make a multidirectional sliding pathway similar to that of hip joint prostheses. Several phosphate buffered saline (PBS) solutions containing a synthetic lipid, dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine (L-a-DPPC), and two kinds of serum proteins, albumin and γ-globulin, were prepared. These solutions were used as lubricants in the wear test and the effect of the lipid and protein concentration on the UHMWPE wear was evaluated. Results of this study indicated that the wear behaviour of a UHMWPE-on-metal sliding pair was clearly affected by the lipid and protein concentration. Especially, the wear amount of UHMWPE increased significantly by increasing the γ-globulin concentration. Lipid could play a role of boundary lubricant and reduced wear of UHMWPE, if the protein content was significantly low. On the other hand, the polyethylene wear amount was increased with increasing lipid concentration in the case of relatively high protein concentration.

This review examines the significant literature on the biology of Echinostoma species in the "revolutum" group. We have considered 10 species belonging to this group. There is a considerable body of literature for four of the species, i.e. Echinostoma caproni, E. trivolvis, E. paraensei and E. revolutum. For these species we have arranged coverage to include the following headings: (1) systematic and descriptive studies; (2) experimental, manipulative and ecological studies; (3) physiological and biochemical studies; (4) immunological and molecular studies. For the remaining six species, i.e. E. friedi, E. miyagawai, E. echinatum, E. parvocirris, E. luisyrei and E. jurini, the literature is not very extensive, and headings were not used. Considerable information in various areas of modern parasitology can be obtained from species in the "revolutum" complex for which the entire life cycle is maintained in the laboratory. The review includes a list of researchers and their addresses who currently maintain such life cycles.

Summary To evaluate the effects of (construction) products on the environment a standardized methodology called Environmental Life Cycle Analysis of Products (LCA), has been developed in the Netherlands. This methodology evaluates products in their specific function and during their entire life cycle. “Environment measures” are obtained, which are used for a large number of objectives, varying from product comparison, environmental management witfrin industries, product improvement and certification of construction products. Various LCA-studies of construction products have already been performed. Effects of recycling can be assessed fairly well.

Publisher Summary This chapter presents the safety characteristics of solid propellants and hazards of solid rocket motors. During the course of their entire life cycle, from production to utilization, solid propellant rocket motors are found in many varied environments and are subjected to stresses corresponding to a series of various activities. A risk-assessment process consists of assigning a probability of occurrence to each potential hazard for each phase of the life of a propellant grain. There are two traditional methods, namely, regulatory approach and analytical study. The propellant industry is subject to the application of various regulations. These regulations establish hazard categories or sections for the various explosive substances, solid propellants in this case, corresponding to the pyrotechnic effects likely to be encountered. There are the primary threats from the solid propellant rocket motors; however, beyond these primary hazards, any active projection may lead to a secondary hazard caused by the impact of energetic material against walls or other objects against a wall. In the case of a violent event, the blast causes an overpressure in the surroundings, which may remain modest in the case of an explosion. The result of this analysis is the probability of an undesirable pyrotechnic event.

Publisher Summary This chapter describes methods for collecting, maintaining, and culturing the purple sea urchin— Strongyfocentrotus purpuratus . The chapter presents current techniques used in raising these animals through their entire life cycle, including shedding gametes from gravid animals, culturing embryos, rearing larvae, and rearing juveniles. As the larvae must feed to complete development, the procedures for raising algae as a food source for the larvae are included. The practical procedures for induction of the fragile postmetamorphic stages and raising juveniles to adults are considered. The general protocol for rearing purple sea urchins in most cases applies to other species also. The chapter discusses various methods for management of adult sea urchins. A critical variable in maintaining adult sea urchins in the laboratory is the number of animals per unit volume of seawater and the amount of oxygen required for adequate maintenance. Care must also be exercised when packing and transporting the animals. Plastic ice chests or Styrofoam containers can be used with a layer of newspaper on the bottom to further protect tubefeet and to soak up any excess water. Shipping purple sea urchins and many other species over long distances to inland laboratories can be done successfully using the packing techniques.

A number of safety measures and analyses have to be considered during the entire life cycle of a computerized automation system. The implementation and effectiveness of these safety measures have to be assessed and controlled by proper safety management procedures. The safety management organization must guarantee independency of safety control. A framework of guidelines for safety management of computerized automation systems is presented.

Publisher Summary Arthropod parasites remain as important pathogens of laboratory mice. Access to the host by a number of parasitic species has been interdicted by at least two major factors acting in concert: (1) commercial and institutional applications of gnotobiotic principles for the development of parasite-free production colonies, with the consequently common availability of arthropod-free mouse stocks; and (2) general acceptance of the principles of modern colony management. These factors have essentially limited arthropod parasitism of laboratory colonies to a handful of relatively species–specific forms that must live their entire life cycle on the mouse host: Polyplax serrata, Myobia musculi, Radfordia affinis, ρsorergates simplex, Myocoptes musculinus, and Trichoecius romboutsi. This chapter discusses these forms. The older literature makes frequent reference to a diversity of arthropod forms. Many of these species are now only rarely encountered as parasites of laboratory mice. Such parasites include the fleas, true bugs, and mesostigmatic mites, all of which are forms that must spend a part of their life cycle off the host. These have been the parasitic species most vulnerable to the pathogen barriers and sanitization standards characteristic of modern animal facilities. The few citations of parasitism with such species in recent years have occurred as surveys of wild mouse populations or as reports of infestations in colonies with deficient care standards.

Publisher Summary Coccidiosis is the disease caused by infection with one or more species of Coccidia, all of which are protozoan parasites. Severe cases of coccidiosis generally result from raising domesticated animals in crowded conditions. At least, nine species of Coccidia infect the domestic chicken and all of them belong to the genus Eimeria . Coccidia are so host and site specific that the location and physical characteristics of the lesions in the intestinal tract are one method by which these parasites are speciated. A better understanding of the complex life cycle of the Coccidia was facilitated after it became possible to cultivate these parasites in vitro . Although the entire life cycle of some species has been reproduced in vitro , the oocyst yields are poor in relation to the number of parasites in the asexual stages and results are inconsistent.