PROPOSALS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT OVER THE WOODEN PANELS PRODUCTIVE PROCESS UNDER A BRAZILIAN CONDITION, FOCUSING ON THE IMPACTS FOR THE HUMAN TOXICITY CATEGORY

Abstract

The Brazilian wooden panel industry has been growing over the last decades, what increases the concerns with its productive characteristics and the consequences of the practices adopted. The objective of this study is to present a discussion regarding the importance of the assessment on the environmental profile of wooden panels produced in Brazil, prioritizing the panels with bigger prominence in the segment, due to their potential damage to the human health resulting from their production processes and use. This paper focuses on the human toxicity category because this is one impact category on which the panels characteristics contribute to since the conception of raw materials even after its expedition and posterior use.  In light of that, a set of potential improvements are proposed in order to reduce the environmental loads of the processes here approached, considering the hotspots identified in studies under the Brazilian conditions. For the human toxicity category, the hotspots were: consume of the binding agent, consume of electrical energy, consume of wood chips and transportation.