Health & Pollution
User Exposures
Intent
Users are exposed through numerous pathways to toxic chemicals in building materials within and around the buildings in which they are installed. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and semi volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) are directly emitted in a gaseous state that is inhaled or that attach to dust that is in turn inhaled or ingested. Dust from the material itself may also contain potentially harmful compounds and be inhaled or ingested. Toxic chemicals can leach from the material into drinking water. This category measures and rewards the elimination of content and emissions that may directly endanger the health of occupants of the building and those in its vicinity.
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Ideal
There is no content in the product or material, nor measured emission from the product, of a hazardous chemical. Hazardous chemicals are defined to include known or suspected carcinogens, mutagens, reproductive toxicants, teratogens, endocrine disruptors, or acute or chronic toxicants.
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Optimal materials and products will:
- Not contain hazardous chemicals
- Not contain chemicals that can breakdown or react with other compounds in the product or in its environment to result in the generation of hazardous chemicals.
- Be designed for installation and use without the use of supplemental products (such as adhesives and finishes) that are hazardous chemicals or that breakdown or react to result in the generation of hazardous chemicals.
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Priorities
Products are evaluated using the following hierarchy (all are considered equally important in the evaluation):
- Full disclosure of all contents
- Measure and report VOC emissions
- Reduce measured emissions of all VOCs below levels determined to have no observable impact on chronic health. Evaluate all individual levels of VOCs for which a threshold level has been established, not just TVOCs.
- Eliminate all known or suspected carcinogens and reproductive toxicants.
- Eliminate all known or suspected mutagens and endocrine disruptors
- Prioritize persistent bioaccumulative toxicants for elimination
- Eliminate use of acutely toxic substances
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Indicators
These questions form the basis for the category rating. Note that where a supplemental product, such as an adhesive or surface finish is customary or manufacturer recommended, the recommended or customary supplementary product must be considered as well. For emissions, the total of the primary and supplementary products must be evaluated, either by testing in assembly or by adding independent tests of each product. For content issues, the data must be evaluated independently for both the primary and supplementary product.
1.) VOC emissions
a. Are total volatile organic compound (TVOC) emissions measured by an independent lab using manufacturer recommended assembly test samples or totaling independent parts of the assembly? Are these emissions disclosed on the product or in product specifications readily available to designers and specifiers and at the point of purchase?
b. Are individual volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions measured by an independent lab using manufacturer recommended assembly test samples or totaling independent parts of the assembly? Are these emissions disclosed in product literature and specifications used by designers and specifiers and and at the point of purchase?
c. Is there a published corporate goal for reduction of VOC emissions of their products?
d. Are VOC emissions associated with the product during installation and use certified by a second or third party certification program?
2) Formaldehyde content
a. Is formaldehyde content disclosed in product literature and specifications used by designers and specifiers and at the point of purchase?
b. Is there a published corporate goal for reduction of formaldehyde content in its products?
3) Other CMRTE content
a. Are carcinogens, mutagens, reproductive toxicants, teratogens, endocrine disruptors or highly acute toxicity chemicals (CMRTEs) contained within the product disclosed in product literature and specifications used by designers and specifiers and at the point of purchase? (see below for lists of chemicals falling under one of these categories)
b. What is the concentration as a percent of total mass of CMRTEs?
c. Are halogenated flame retardants (HFRs) present in the product? Examples are polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) and other brominated or chlorinated flame retardants (BFRs or CFRs).
d. Are perfluorochemical (PFC) compounds used in or on the product?
Rating criteria:
Starting from zero, each criteria must be satisfied to pass that rating step. A blank cell indicates that only the criteria in other column(s) need to be met to pass that rating step.
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Category Rating Criteria Table
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Level
|
Impact subcategories |
| Chronic VOC emissions |
CMRTE* & Acute content |
| 10 Ideal |
No detect of VOC emissions |
No CMRTEs, acute toxicants, HFRs, PFCs, heavy metals or phthalates |
| 9 |
No measured VOC emission concentrations exceeding 1/10 CRELs & 1/500 TLV & no detect of known or suspected CMRTE |
No CMRTE >0.01% of mass
No PFCs
No Acutely toxic content
|
| 8 |
|
No CMRTE >1% of mass
No heavy metals (Pb, Hg, Cd, organotins), No phthalates
|
| 7 |
No VOC concentrations exceeding ½ CREL & 1/100 TLV |
No HFRs |
| 6 |
No VOC concentrations exceeding ½ CREL |
No Prop 65 Carcinogens or Reproductive toxins >1% of mass,
No lead, No added formaldehyde
Acutely toxic content <1% of mass
|
| 5 |
|
Acutely toxic content < 5% of mass |
| 4 |
No VOC concentrations exceeding 1/10 TLV |
No added urea formaldehyde |
| 3 |
TVOC limit <0.5 mg/m3 and 5 or less VOCs limited |
TVOC content<50g/l *** |
| 2 |
Corporate VOC emissions reduction goal** |
Corporate CMRTE content reduction goal** |
| 1 |
VOCs emissions measured & reported
|
CMRTE and acute toxicity content reported |
| 0 |
No info reported |
No info reported |
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*CMRTE = known or suspected carcinogen, mutagen, reproductive toxicant, teratogen, or endocrine disruptor …
** Not necessary to have a corporate reduction goal if product attains higher rating levels
*** for wet applied products only
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Current green label:
This table evaluates labeling, certification and rating systems that address materials and indicate the Pharos rating level that each one is equivalent to they.
| Current Green Label Table |
| Labeling, certification and rating programs that include occupant exposure standards |
Equivalent sub-category rating level |
| Chronic VOC emissions |
CMRTE & Acute content |
| GreenGuard Children & Schools (06) |
7* |
0 |
| SCS Indoor Advantage Gold (06) |
6 |
(6**) Requires no Prop 65 Carcinogens or Reproductive toxins >1% of mass for adhesive only, 3 for flat paints only |
| Cascadia Living Building Standard (11/06) |
6 |
(7*) Except no restriction on acute toxic content (includes parts of 8) |
| California Gold Sustainable Gold -2006 (4/06) |
6 |
(7*) Except no restriction on lead or acute toxic content |
| FloorScore (06) |
6 |
(6) Requires no Prop 65 Carcinogens or Reproductive toxins >1% of mass for adhesive only 0 for all other materials |
| CRI GreenLabel Plus (06) |
6 |
0 Appears that GL Plus does not include the 01350 restriction on Prop 65 Carcinogens or Reproductive toxins at >1% of mass for adhesives |
| certification based upon CHPS 01350 |
6 |
(6) Requires no Prop 65 Carcinogens or Reproductive toxins >1% of mass for adhesive only, 0 for all other materials |
| MBDC Cradle to Cradle Gold or Platinum (8/05) |
6* |
6 to 9* |
| NSF 140 Sustainable Carpet Standard (12/05) |
Up to 6*** |
Up to (7) Except no restriction on acute toxic content and only restricts PBDEs, not all HFRs |
| MTS SMART Building Standard & MTS Sustainable Flooring Standard |
Up to 6*** |
Up to (7) Except no restriction on acute toxic content and only restricts PBDEs, not all HFRs |
| LEED NC 2.2 (06) |
Up to 6*** |
Up to (6) Requires no Prop 65 Carcinogens or Reproductive toxins >1% of mass for certain adhesives only, no added formaldehyde for wood products, 0 for all other materials |
| Basic Greenguard (06) |
4 |
0 |
| BIFMA X7.1-2005 Furniture Standard (9/05) |
3 |
0 |
| CRI GreenLabel(06) |
3 |
0 |
| SCS Indoor Advantage (06) |
3 |
(3) for flat paints only, 0 for all other materials |
| MBDC Cradle to Cradle Silver (8/05) |
0 |
0 |
| Green Globes (06) |
0 |
0 |
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* Tentative placement. See Issues section below
** Parenthetical number indicates that standard may only meet part of the requirement of that rating level.
*** Point based rating system where these criteria are not prerequisites therefore achievement of the rating does not guarantee achievement in a particular category if not prerequisite
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Protocol Details
The following are references to peer-reviewed lists of chemicals and other sources for identifying potential CMRTE compounds:
Carcinogens:
Reproductive Toxins:
Highly acute toxins:
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Definitions
(coming)
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Issues
Issues flagged for future development and refinement for this category:
- Add mutagen, teratogen and endocrine disruptor lists. Determine if there are combined lists to simplify the lookups.
- Add criteria for evaluation of VOC emissions from ducts.
- Add protocol to indicate which products need to pass VOC emission testing and which ones only need to pass CMRTE content test. For example we would want CMRTE content for water supply pipe, but chronic VOC emissions to occupants are not expected to be significant enough to warrant testing. (Acute emissions from installation are another matter)
- Add protocol for rating VOC emissions for wet applied products (paints, adhesives etc) where acute exposures during and after installation are much more significant than the long term chronic exposures captured by the current factors. Perhaps this should be an entirely separate subcategory? Emissions testing is now under development for wet applied products. Currently the most widely established way of dealing with this issue is through TVOC content, which is only very crudely related to health, having been developed for smog formation impact purposes, not for direct effects on human health (the 3rd level content rating criteria of 50 g/l is the strongest public standard currently for TVOC (SCAQMD – and they have higher limits for certain kinds of adhesives and finishes) GreenGuard has developed an emissions rating which has not yet been vetted by the community and the 1350 developers are also working on development of an emissions rating system.
- Consider exterior wet applied products that can have particular impact on occupant health in adjoining spaces (such as hot asphalt roofing systems)
- GreenGuard Children & Schools is tentatively placed at a 7 for its use of the OEHHA CREL VOC threshold standards set by CHPS 01350 plus adding the 1/100 TLV for other VOCs. Note, however, that GreenGuard has not disclosed its laboratory practice for public scrutiny so it is not clear whether it is equivalent to the CHPS 01350 protocol at the same threshold values. This issue is in discussion currently and should be resolved soon.
- Clarify MBDC rating system placement uncertainties:
- For VOC emissions criteria MBDC uses <1/10 TLV or MAK whichever is lowest. MAK (Maximum Concentrations at the Workplace ) is a German standard. Need to determine whether it provides enough additional protection of human health (are a significant number of its levels significantly lower than TLV?) to warrant a higher level than level 4 standards that only use 1/10 TLV.
- For VOC emissions criteria, MBDC also restricts to “No detectable VOCs that are considered known or suspected carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, mutagens, reproductive toxins, or teratogens. Based on the lab chosen to do the work what is considered “non-detect” may vary. For the purposes of this certification, anything below 2μg/m3” Need to look at crossover between CRELs and CMRTE list and look at Levin work on common emissions and decide if CMRTE criteria should go elsewhere and hence should effect MBDC (and other systems) placement
- For hazardous content MBDC protocol requires phasing out all substances assessed as “red” (“High hazard and risk associated with the use of this substance”. It is not clear from publicly available documents exactly what the criteria are for assessing red so there is high uncertainty on where on the Pharos rating it would fall.
- Evaluate how to incorporate 01350 carcinogen or reproductive toxicant emission SEL level into rating
- Consider how to integrate maintenance emissions into this measure – VOC and particulate releases over lifetime of maintenance can be far greater than installation impact.
- Consider how to include consideration of replacement period (frequency of installation during period) for any installation exposure issues.
- Consider how to evaluate supplementary products when customary or necessary but manufacturer does not specify a particular product.
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