An integral element of reporting about products with the HPD Open Standard is to include a hazard screening of the substances in the product and a listing of hazards that have been associated with these substances. The hazard screening information that appears on the HPD is based on an extensive, but finite, group of authoritative chemical hazard lists for hazards screening, based on the GreenScreen List Translator Specified Lists.
This information has been determined by many different, independent authoritative bodies, based on criteria that they have established using the results of epidemiological, toxicological, and scientific research studies.
The HPD Open Standard specifies which of the lists created by these authoritative bodies are to be considered in the hazard screening information reported in an HPD.
It is important to understand that a screening result that indicates an association of a substance with a hazard does not provide information about the exposure to or risk of that hazard in the product. Throughout its development, the HPD Open Standard has used this approach to indicate what hazards might be present, based on the inherent properties of the substances involved. Additional assessment or analysis of the product and its usage in buildings, which is generally not in the purview of the HPD, is necessary to indicate exposure and risk.
Manufacturers who wish to qualify hazard screening information with exposure and risk context may do so in the Substance Notes and/or Product Notes sections of the HPD. These notes sections are good places to indicate why a hazard is not expected to be present to the occupants of a building or other users of product. Manufacturers are strongly encouraged to couch these statements in scientific terms and to reference specific scientific, published studies.
Manufacturers should also rest assured that architects and designers reviewing HPDs are accustomed to seeing these hazard warnings. Serious hazard warnings are very common, and architects understand that this does not translate to risk to building occupants. Architects understand that the HPD is a report of inherent hazards and that the transparency involved supports the development of safer products.
That said, manufacturers who notice hazard warnings on substances they use are encouraged to review those substances and to understand their role (and check their necessity) in the product. Substances that don't present hazards to occupants may still cause health and environmental concerns elsewhere in their life-cycle, and eliminating them from a product may reduce harm at those other life-cycle stages.