Risk assessment and life-cycle assessment: Fundamentally different yet reconcilable

For the purpose of chemical risk management and decision-making, chemical risk assessment (RA) and life-cycle assessment (LCA) of products are indispensable tools. In this paper the authors provide an overview of their respective modes of application, based on the goals for which they have been designed, and the underlying modelling structures. LCA is shown to differ in a fundamental way from RA, offering distinctive possibilities for serving management and policy goals. The functional unit plays a key role, both in the capacities of LCA and in how LCA differs from RA. Despite these differences, the authors conclude the paper with a proposal for the integration of RA and LCA into a common tool that combines them without the loss of their individual advantages.