Building Product Transparency— Be Careful What You Ask For
Officially launched October 2013 as an alternative to HPDS, the PTD will be developed through the ANSI process by a balanced group of stakeholders in an open, consensus-based process.
Last month I wrote about a handful of firms that have sent threatening letters to arbitrarily chosen building product manufacturers demanding that they develop Health Product Declarations or face serious consequences, including removal of products from future project specifications. The rationalization used in the letters is that architects must know the chemical content of a product to make buildings greener and ensure the good health of building occupants.
One firm states, “We encourage you to engage [in] this initiative so we as partners in the building industry may deliver healthier buildings to owners and end users.” Another writes, “… we have been evaluating our specifications in order to endeavor to identify and eventually eliminate a select group of chemicals that to our knowledge are known or suspected of being hazardous.” And another says, “To understand how our decisions affect human health and the environment, we are asking for you to share information about product contents and their associated health hazards.”