LCA of nanotechnological products -What’s the issues?

The number of nanotechnological products (NPs) on the market are steadily increasing but environmental aspects of their life cycle are still to a large extent disregarded presumably due to lack of data and a neglect from the nanoresearchers. Although essentially comparable, LCAs of NPs does involve some specificities compared to LCAs of traditional products. There is a need for reiteration of our common ground understanding of what may be of significant environmental importance in the life cycle. All parts of the LCA framework may require special consideration when the object is a NP. Through a number of product examples from both micro- and nanotechnology the specificities of LCAs of NPs are identified. The product may introduce entirely new functionalities and system boundaries may need to include production facilities. Development of new methods of characterising the toxic impacts from nanoparticles is necessary – this also have implication for the inventory. Scarce resources may be a more important issue than for other types of products. Although the object of LCA is a functional unit impacts due to rebound effects should also be considered.