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The Pharos Project is a project of the Healthy Building Network. HBN is:

In Vermont:
Bill Walsh, Paul Bogart

In California:
Julie Silas, Tom Lent

In Washington, DC:
Larry Kilroy, Sarah Gilberg, Sarah Pickell, Susan Sabella

In Maine:
Jim Vallette

  

PHAROS UNVEILS NEW PRODUCT CATEGORY – HIGH PERFORMANCE COATINGS

JULIE S.
 
01 FEBRUARY
Today, we introduce a new product category to the Pharos Project, High Performance Coatings (CSI MasterFormat 09 96 00). High Performance Coatings are durable paints, used in places like boiler or mechanical rooms, as well as in food prep areas and operating rooms, where chemicals and liquids abound. 

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be displaying the results of HBN-generated research about specific products, scored with a gray score to indicate that the research is preliminary. Simultaneously, we will send out an RFI to each of the product manufacturers, inviting them to engage in the Pharos Project and provide further information to our users. Those manufacturers who do so will obtain solid-colored scores.

As we display more High Performance Coating products, Pharos users will be able to explore different issues associated with the product category and we will be posting new blogs focusing on different aspects of High Performance Coatings.

For now, don’t be surprised by the low scores. One of the many things we learned undertaking this research is that there is a wide range of disclosure among High Performance Coating manufacturers. Some report a long list of chemicals and materials that are included in a product’s ingredients, while others report merely one or two chemicals/materials, sometimes accounting for only 5-10% of what is actually in the product. Not only does this remind us how limited material safety data sheets can be, but hopefully it inspires Pharos users to urge manufacturers to fully disclose the chemicals and other ingredients in their products. In the meantime, we have listed “generic” ingredient mixes for the products drawn from industry norms, which account for the chemicals frequently used in these products where disclosure by the manufacturer was minimal. We invite the manufacturers to tell us what is actually in their products.

Look for more complete coverage of the issues below in coming blog posts, but the bullet points below highlight some of the things we  do  know about High Performance Coatings:

  • Many are made from bisphenol A. People don’t realize that many high performance coatings are made from bisphenol A, one of the chemicals under great scrutiny because of its effect on the hormonal and reproductive system.  (The U.S. EPA recently identified it as a chemical of concern)
  • It’s not just bisphenol A that is worrisome - High Performance Coatings can include a number of other chemicals of concern, including epichlorohydrin (listed as a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer) and nonyl phenyl (an OSPAR Commission listed persistent bio-accumulative toxicant (PBT))
  • There is still much controversy about how to measure short-term VOC emissions from wet applied products.  As a result, high performance coatings, are currently evaluated on the actual content of VOCs in the product rather than their emissions. 

Most of what you will see in these preliminary results focuses on the chemical and material content of the coatings. We expect when manufacturers engage, we will learn more about their use of renewable energy – and some of them may follow the call for transparency and identify more thoroughly what it is that they are using to make their products.

Julie Silas is a researcher with the Pharos Project and a health care expert with the Healthy Building Network.

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Jack Geibig, University of Tennessee Center for Clean Products


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