GREENGUARD

GREENGUARD Children & Schools Certification program's minimum requirements comply with the State of California’s Department of Health Services Standard Practice (CA Section 01350) for testing chemical emissions from building products used in schools, offices and other sensitive environments. As such, GREENGUARD Children & Schools Certified products can be used as a strategy to earn valuable credits in the CHPS Best Practices Manual for K-12 schools, U.S. Green Building Council's LEED^âGreen Building Rating System, Green Guide for Healthcareä, NAHB Green Building Guidelines, Green Globes, Regreen and numerous other local green building codes.

Children are more heavily exposed to environmental toxins than adults, as a result their exposure levels are the basis for sensitive environments. They consume more food, water, and have higher inhalation rates per pound of body weight than adults. To account for inhalation exposure to young children with greater sensitivities, a body burden correction factor of 0.43 has been applied to current allowable emission levels from indoor materials and furnishings.

In addition, the exposure to individual volatile organic compounds (VOCs), as detected in the C₆ - C₁₆ mass spectrometric analysis screen, has been adjusted to allow no greater than 1/100 currently published Threshold Limit Values (TLVs) and no greater than ½ California's Chronic Reference Exposure Levels (CRELs). In many cases, the 1/100 safety factor reduction of TLVs results in the most stringent requirements for an extensive range of VOCs. The total VOC or TVOC measurement will take into account the complex mixture of all VOCs found to be off gassing from the product, including those with and without TLVs or CRELs.

In addition, limits on emissions of total phthalates (consisting of dibutyl (DBP), diethylhexyl (DEHP), diethyl (DEP), dimethyl (DMP), butylbenzyl (BBP), and dioctyl (DOP) phthalates) have been added to the list of requirements. Recent research indicates that inhalation is an important route of exposure to phthalates, and that these chemicals have been associated with endocrine disorders, reproductive and developmental toxicity, asthma and allergies.

Emission controls are established to define low-emitting materials for environments where people spend extended periods of time and have children and sensitive adults in residence. These may include schools, daycares, healthcare facilities and residential and commerical spaces.

GREENGUARD Emission Criteria For Children & Schools
Requirements to be met at 168 hours (7 days) with no preconditioning.

Individual VOCs¹	≤1/100 TLV and ≤½ CA chronic REL
Formaldehyde²	≤ 0.0135 ppm/13.5 ppb
Total VOCs³	≤ 0.22 mg/m³
Total Aldehydes⁴	≤ 0.043 ppm/43 ppb
Total Phthalates⁵	≤ 0.01 mg/m³
Total Particles⁶ (≤10 µm)	≤ 0.02 mg/m³
¹Any VOC not listed must produce an air concentration level no greater than 1/100 the Threshold Limit Value (TLV) industrial workplace standard (Reference: American Conference of Government Industrial Hygienists, 6500 Glenway, Bldg D-7, Cincinnati, OH 45211-4438) and/or no greater than 1/2 the CA Chronic Reference Exposure Level (CREL) (http://www.oehha.ca.gov/air/chronic_rels/AllChrels.html - (CRELS) Adopted by the State of California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), February 2005).
²Formaldehyde criteria established so that emission levels reach 0.014ppm (13.5ppb) within 14 days of installation (meeting CA 1350 requirements).
³Defined to be the total response of measured VOCs falling within the C₆-C₁₆ range, with responses calibrated to a toluene surrogate.
⁴Defined to be the total response of a specific target list of aldehydes (2-butenal; acetaldehyde; benzaldehyde; 2,5-dimethylbenzaldehyde; 2-methylbenzaldehyde; 3-and/or 4-methylbenzaldehyde; butanal; 3-methylbutanal; formaldehyde; hexanal; pentanal; propanal), with each individually calibrated to a compound specific standard.
⁵Defined to be the total response of a specific target list of phthalates including dibutyl (DBP), diethylhexyl (DEHD), diethyl (DEP), butylbenzyl (BBP), di-octyl (DOP), and dimethyl (DMP) phthalates (conducted using a modified phthalate specific analytical method, OSHA 104).
⁶ Particles applicable to fibrous, particle-releasing products with exposed surface area in air streams (a forced air test with specific test method).