Are you a chemicals management professional, a product designer, or a professor teaching about the importance of material choices? Are you responsible for eliminating restricted chemicals in your product, getting ahead of regulatory bans and phaseouts, or developing safe and circular product lines? Whatever your discipline, chemicals management task, or your commercial product, Pharos can save you time and money by avoiding chemicals of concern.
Powering chemicals management solutions
“Pharos is meant to be a ‘first line of defense’ in chemicals management,” says Danielle Cresswell, Senior Sustainability Manager for Klean Kanteen, the best-selling, steel, reusable water bottle that is replacing millions of plastic, single-use bottles. “With the capacity to compare up to 500 chemicals at a time, and the ability to pull up 18 different hazard endpoints, Pharos is the first resource I consult in designing products.”
Pharos saves companies resources by streamlining the process to check lists of lists and provides screening level hazard assessments on >160,000 chemicals within seconds. Companies can quickly prioritize chemicals of concern to phase out and even identify safer alternatives.
For those in the building product sector, Pharos has a unique library of 150 Common Product profiles. These records allow you to understand chemicals commonly found in building products and find safer alternatives to chemicals of concern. Learn more in our companion newsletter article.
Powering a virtual learning experience
Dr. Heather Buckley, a green chemist and civil engineering professor at the University of Victoria, teaches a Green Safe Water course where students research hazardous metal pollution in water, such as lead from batteries and tin stabilizers from plastics.
“I use Pharos in the classroom to teach practical toxicology,” says Buckley. “Students become familiar with a tool and hazard framework used by hundreds of major manufacturers to identify safer alternatives. By the time they graduate and enter the workforce, my students are well-equipped to solve such environmental health challenges.”
In this time of distance learning across the globe, Pharos provides a platform that students can use to practice designing products with safer chemistry. Download example assignments and curriculum here.
Powering collaboration in the midst of COVID-19
The Pharos discussion portal has recently been hosting time-sensitive technical discussions such as exploring new materials to prototype intubation boxes, questioning drugs proposed to treat COVID-19, and seeking suggestions for safe disinfectants at a time when we are short on supplies. In these discussions, users post questions to the Pharos community and receive timely responses by subject matter experts.
“We are encouraged to see our Pharos community engaging to help each other solve problems in this unprecedented time,” says Teresa McGrath, Chief Research Officer for HBN, “when temporary hospitals are erected in days and manufacturing facilities are quickly shifting entire production lines to new products, decisions on materials and chemicals need to be made in minutes. Pharos provides immediate access to hazard data for chemicals, materials, and building products.”
Powering Platforms and Data Systems
Pharos data powers third-party technology platforms, such as the Health Product Declaration, ChemFORWARD’s MaterialWise screening tool, and ChemHAT, and serves clients with data exports to support their internal chemicals management tools. Our partners trust the quality and reliability of Pharos data, and appreciate the time and cost savings from Pharos’ Application Program Interface (API) or dataset exports.
Power YOUR work!
YOU are doing important work and doing your part to make our homes, workplaces, and communities safer. Pharos can help you meet your goals and streamline your work. In addition to our standard online access, now there are more ways to access chemical hazard data from Healthy Building Network’s Pharos Database!
- Keep your corporate applications up to date in real time, eliminate the need for manual entry by connecting to our Pharos API’s and know that you always have the most current information available.
- Not able to take our API yet, but still manually managing lists of lists for your EHS, regulatory, or sustainability programs? We offer low-cost standard and custom Data Downloads from Pharos to power your internal chemicals management programs and get the information out to those in your organization who really need it.
During this pandemic, HBN is offering the Pharos Basic online subscription level for free, so that its important information can be accessed for better decisions.
If you are interested in further details or subscribing to Pharos, more information is available here. Do you have feedback or suggestions for us based on your Pharos experience? Let us know here!
Why do we call this powerful resource Pharos? The original Pharos was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, a giant of a lighthouse near the city of Alexandria, Egypt that warned Mediterranean sailors away from the rocky shores. (280 B.C.-1480 A.D.)
