Looking for Alternatives? Split-Shots as
an Exemplary Case
Lars Carlsen
1 Introduction
In the news we are virtually on a daily basis confronted with now this or that is
not good for humans and/or the environment, which obviously calls for alternatives
as many of the suspected, or proven harmful substances are actually in their own
sense beneficial for their specific purposes. This process may be rather complicated
involving a multitude of steps (NAS 2014a, b). The following list is adopted from
(NAS 2014a, b):
1. Identify the chemical of concern.
2. Scoping and problem formulation.
3. Identify potential alternatives.
4. Refer cases with limited or no alternatives to research and development.
5. Assess physicochemical properties.
6. Assess human health and ecological hazards, and assess comparative exposure.
7. Integration of information on safer alternatives.
8. Life cycle thinking.
9. Optional assessments: Additional life cycle assessment,
10. Identify acceptable assessments and refer cases with no alternatives to research
and development.
11. Compare or rank alternatives.
12. Implement alternatives.
13. Research or de novo design of safer alternatives
L. Carlsen ()
Awareness Center, Roskilde, Denmark
e-mail: lc@awarenesscenter.dk
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. Bruggemann et al. (eds.), Measuring and Understanding Complex Phenomena,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59683-5_11
153
an Exemplary Case
Lars Carlsen
1 Introduction
In the news we are virtually on a daily basis confronted with now this or that is
not good for humans and/or the environment, which obviously calls for alternatives
as many of the suspected, or proven harmful substances are actually in their own
sense beneficial for their specific purposes. This process may be rather complicated
involving a multitude of steps (NAS 2014a, b). The following list is adopted from
(NAS 2014a, b):
1. Identify the chemical of concern.
2. Scoping and problem formulation.
3. Identify potential alternatives.
4. Refer cases with limited or no alternatives to research and development.
5. Assess physicochemical properties.
6. Assess human health and ecological hazards, and assess comparative exposure.
7. Integration of information on safer alternatives.
8. Life cycle thinking.
9. Optional assessments: Additional life cycle assessment,
10. Identify acceptable assessments and refer cases with no alternatives to research
and development.
11. Compare or rank alternatives.
12. Implement alternatives.
13. Research or de novo design of safer alternatives
L. Carlsen ()
Awareness Center, Roskilde, Denmark
e-mail: lc@awarenesscenter.dk
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. Bruggemann et al. (eds.), Measuring and Understanding Complex Phenomena,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59683-5_11
153