Does the Production of an Airbag Injure more People than the Airbag Saves in Traffic?: Opting for an Empirically Based Approach to Social Life Cycle Assessment
Journal article, 2013

Social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) has been discussed for some years in the LCA community. We raise two points of criticism against current S-LCA approaches. First, the development of S-LCA methodology has not, to date, been based on experience with actual case studies. Second, for social impacts to be meaningfully assessed in a life cycle perspective, social indicators need to be unambiguously interpreted in all social contexts along the life cycle. We here discuss an empirically based approach to S-LCA, illustrated by a case study of an automobile airbag system. The aim of the case study is to compare the injuries and lives lost during the product life cycle of the airbag system (excluding waste handling impacts) with the injuries prevented and lives saved during its use. The indicator used for assessing social impacts in this study is disability-adjusted life years (DALY). The results from this study indicate that the purpose of an airbag system, which is to save lives and prevent injuries, is justified also in a life cycle perspective.

automobile airbag

disability-adjusted life years (DALY)

risk

human toxicity potential

industrial ecology

traffic safety

Author

Henrikke Baumann

Chalmers, Energy and Environment, Environmental Systems Analysis

Rickard Arvidsson

Chalmers, Energy and Environment, Environmental Systems Analysis

Hui Tong

Chalmers, Energy and Environment, Environmental Systems Analysis

Ying Wang

Chalmers, Energy and Environment, Environmental Systems Analysis

Journal of Industrial Ecology

1088-1980 (ISSN) 1530-9290 (eISSN)

Vol. 17 4 517-527

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Subject Categories

Other Engineering and Technologies

Environmental Sciences

DOI

10.1111/jiec.12016

More information

Created

10/7/2017