Basic Description |  Scoring Protocols Summary |  Definitions |  Issues

Scoring this category is based upon

• Standards and certification programs that test emissions of VOCs or regulate the VOC content in products.
• Total VOC content in wet applied products.
• complete disclosure of all materials used in the product.

The IAQ and other Toxic User Exposure (UseTox) scoring starts with a "base score" reflecting the standards the product meets for VOC content or emissions, often based on certifications the product has achieved. Each certification or standard or VOC content level is assigned a level score based upon the rigor of the criteria. The higher the score, the healthier the VOC criteria. A one point deduction is made for VOC emissions report or certifications that are not carried out by an independent third party certifier. See the Scoring Chart below for the score assigned to each certification and the Criteria for Scoring Chart below it for the criteria for a certification to reach each level.

Pharos then looks beyond VOCs to evaluate all materials in the listed material content, plus additives and possible contaminant chemicals (such as monomers and catalysts) introduced into the product during manufacturing (identified as "life cycle chemicals. These are compared against chemical hazard warnings in the Chemical & Material Library (CML). Monomers, catalysts and other potential contaminant chemicals discovered in Pharos research to be associated with materials are listed in the Life Cycle section of the CML record for chemicals.

Each of these listed materials and additives and potential contaminants are screened against hazard lists in the Chemical and Material Library (CML) to determine:

• whether they have been identified as persistent and bioaccumulative toxicants (PBTs),
• what health effects have been associated with them and
• how they have been categorized on the CML flagged level of concern scale
  •  Black - urgent concern
  •  Red - very high concern
  •  Orange - high concern
  •  Yellow - moderate concern
  •  Blue - potential problem
  •  Green – no concern

Click here to learn more about the CML database of chemical hazards, the flagged levels of concern and for further description of the protocols used to categorize materials by direct and life cycle hazards.

Points are then deducted from the VOC base score based upon the level of concern of the worst toxic content in the product. Only direct human health hazards that might affect the occupants of the building are counted for this scoring. Other environmental hazards such as global warming, ozone depletion and aquatic toxicity do not factor in to the User Exposure score. Additionally, authoritative warnings that are specific to occupational settings are not included in this scoring. See scoring chart below for details on point deductions.

Pharos only takes one deduction, rather than a cumulative approach. There may be multiple chemicals that would trigger deductions in the product score, but only a single deduction - the highest one applicable – is used to determine the final score.