Toxic impact assessment of a manufacturing process: illustrative application to the automotive paint process

The paper discusses the application of steady‐state mass balance models for evaluating the fate of a chemical in a multi‐media environment as part of the process of impact assessment and pollution prevention in a manufacturing industry. The model results are integrated into an index that combines steady‐state emissions, substance partitioning and persistence properties, inter‐media transfer rates, exposure pathways and toxicity. The index, called the Index of Potential Toxic Impact (IPTI), can then be used as part of the relative toxic impact assessment of industrial processes. The approach is applied to evaluate the relative toxic impact to human health of solvent selection in the automotive paint process using a four‐stage toxicological impact assessment process.