Cradle to gate toxic impacts of solders: a comparison of impact assessment methods

This paper compares and contrasts two methods for calculating life-cycle human and aquatic toxicity impacts. A hazard value (HV) approach and a toxicity potential (TP) approach are used to calculate toxic impacts of three wave solder alloys: tin/lead (SnPb), tin/copper (SnCu), and tin/silver/copper (SAC). TPs are based on a more sophisticated model than the HV method; however, the TP method is less comprehensive in the number of potentially toxic chemicals it includes. Both methods resulted in similar overall conclusions regarding the relative difference in impacts for each solder alternative; however, the inventory data that drive the impact results differ for the two impact assessment methods.