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Home Depot Raises The Bar On Hazard Avoidance - New Chemical Strategy Is An Important Step Towards Healthier Product Options

Bill Walsh | October 25, 2017 | Policies

Home Depot today announced a chemical hazard avoidance policy that will prohibit numerous toxic chemicals in paints, carpeting, flooring and fiberglass insulation products. The Home Depot Chemical Strategy, included in its 2017 Responsibility Report, targets a range of chemicals known or suspected to cause cancer, mimic and disrupt hormone systems,...


Details on the new Home Depot Chemical Strategy

James Vallette | October 25, 2017 | Policies

Home Depot, the largest building product retailer in the U.S., has announced a sweeping new Chemical Strategy that considers several building product categories, including carpet, fiberglass insulation, paints, and laminate flooring.  (See related Healthy Building News article). Home Depot’s Chemical Strategy promises to accelerate...


Perkins + Will Adds Antimicrobial Products to Precautionary List

Bill Walsh | March 01, 2017 | Policies

Following the lead of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and other credible institutions, the global architectural firm of Perkins+Will is placing Products Marketed as Antimicrobial on its Precautionary List. The firm's decision was made after an exhaustive review of available information about the use...


FDA Rule Casts More Doubt On Anti-Microbial Building Products

Bill Walsh | September 07, 2016 | Policies

Last Friday, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a new regulation that bans 19 antimicrobial chemicals, including triclosan and triclocarban, used in hand soaps. [1] restricted substance list, to help building industry professionals avoid these chemicals in building products. During the nearly 40 years [3] Independent investi...


Green Seal poised to launch “Greener Insulation” certification

James Vallette | July 25, 2016 | Policies

This week, product certifier Green Seal plans to release its new insulation standard, almost four months after receiving a slew of critiques of its draft.  It has not yet certified any products, but the organization is asking buyers to ask for “Greener Insulation” that achieves Green Seal certification.  We have not seen an ad...


From NIMBY to Now in Everyone’s Backyard

James Vallette | June 23, 2016 | Policies

When one waste disposal option closes, another inevitably opens.  A half-century ago, the federal government started regulating solid wastes and preventing rampant dumping in the woods, ocean, and unlined dumps. Then the so-called Not-In-My-Backyard (NIMBY) movement of the 1970s and 1980s prevented scores of landfills and incinerators from bei...


Risky Business: Undermining the LEED Material Credit

Tom Lent | May 25, 2016 | Policies

They did it again. The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has pushed another greenwashing credit option into LEED. The new [1] represents perhaps the most audacious effort to date by the ACC to neutralize LEED’s leadership in improving material health in building products. The Credit ignores some of the highest concern chemical hazards (includi...


ACC Pits Risk Assessment Against Right to Know in New LEED Credit

Tom Lent | May 25, 2016 | Policies

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) consolidated their gains today in their battle to undermine design teams’ right to know about product contents and hazards with a new LEED Pilot credit.  The Building Material Human Hazard & Exposure Assessment Pilot Credit that the USGBC announced this week provides manufacturers with an alternat...


The Vinyl Industry Strikes Back

James Vallette | April 29, 2016 | Policies

The Vinyl Institute, a trade association of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) manufacturers, this month launched a blog site, called Vinyl Verified, which embodies the spirit of this year’s presidential campaign. The industry website launched with a suite of posts that try to discredit transparency and disclosure tools, many that the modern green buil...


Take Action for Healthier Building Materials

Tom Lent | March 30, 2016 | Policies

The Healthy Building Network just posted two articles in our Pharos Signal blog asking readers to take specific actions that can really help bring healthier materials into building products. In the first, "HBN Partnering with Cradle to Cradle for Hazard Screening," I invite you to take a look at the latest exciting feature of our Cradle...