Combining in Silico Tools with Multicriteria Analysis for Alternatives Assessment of Hazardous Chemicals: A Case Study of Decabromodiphenyl Ether Alternatives
Journal article, 2019

Alternatives assessment is applied for minimizing the risk of unintentionally replacing a hazardous chemical with another hazardous chemical. Central challenges are the diversity of properties to consider and the lack of high-quality experimental data. To address this, a novel alternatives assessment procedure was developed based on in silico data and multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods. As a case study, 16 alternatives to the flame retardant decabromodiphenyl ether were considered. The hazard properties included persistence (P), bioaccumulation potential (B), toxicities (T), and mobility in water (M). Databases were consulted and 2866 experimental data points were collected for the target chemicals; however, these were mostly replicate data points for some hazard criteria for a subset of alternatives. Therefore, in silico data and three MCDA strategies were tested including heat mapping, multiattribute utility theory (MAUT), and Elimination Et Choix Traduisant la REalité (ELECTRE III). The heat map clearly showed that none of the target chemicals are hazard-free, whereas MAUT and ELECTRE III agreed on ranking the "least worst" choices. This study identified several challenges and the complexity in the alternatives assessment processes motivating more case studies combining in silico and MCDA approaches.

Author

Ziye Zheng

Umeå University

Gregory Peters

University of New South Wales (UNSW)

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Environmental Systems Analysis

Hans Peter H. Arp

Stiftelsen Norges Geotekniske Institutt

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Patrik L. Andersson

Umeå University

Environmental Science & Technology

0013-936X (ISSN) 1520-5851 (eISSN)

Vol. 53 11 6341-6351

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Formas (2015-672), 2016-01-01 -- 2018-12-31.

Subject Categories

Other Engineering and Technologies not elsewhere specified

Bioinformatics (Computational Biology)

Bioinformatics and Systems Biology

DOI

10.1021/acs.est.8b07163

PubMed

31081616

More information

Latest update

6/12/2020