Update! HEALTHY BUILDING NETWORK IS NOW HABITABLE.
Update! HEALTHY BUILDING NETWORK IS NOW HABITABLE.
Update! HEALTHY BUILDING NETWORK IS NOW HABITABLE.
Update! HEALTHY BUILDING NETWORK IS NOW HABITABLE.
Update! HEALTHY BUILDING NETWORK IS NOW HABITABLE.
Update! HEALTHY BUILDING NETWORK IS NOW HABITABLE.

CHEMICAL GUIDANCE

Safer chemistry
is possible.

Between Habitable’s Pharos database and our partner ChemFORWARD you will be empowered to make more informed decisions about the chemicals contained in your products—and the impact that they have on human and planetary health.

Chemicals are complicated.
That’s why we’re here.

Toxic chemical exposure is preventable.

Habitable is reversing decades of negative impacts of toxic chemicals that have burdened our products, our economy, our environment, and our bodies. 

We can solve this by preventing the use and presence of hazardous chemicals in everyday products and uncovering safer alternatives for substitution. 

By organizing, interpreting, and scaling access to chemical hazard data, we will stop the unknowing use of toxic chemicals and shift the supply chain to make informed decisions using safer chemistry in the design phase.

Introducing Pharos

Pharos is the industry’s most comprehensive, independent database of chemicals, polymers, metals and their associated human and environmental health hazards. Over the past 15 years, Pharos has become the must-have resource empowering manufacturers, scientists, and academia to save time and money by making safer and healthier chemical decisions.

Tools for a new era of chemical transparency.

Pharos is creating transparency in the chemical marketplace by revealing the hazards of common (and uncommon) chemicals and facilitating easy decision-making to find safer alternatives that perform the same function, but with fewer health and environmental risks.

Drag each card to reveal chemical facts.

The chemical industry is the second largest manufacturing industry globally, exceeding $5 trillion in 2017.

Production increased 50-fold since 1950 and is projected to triple again by 2050.

2 million
 lives and 
53 million 
years of life lost.

This is equivalent to ~3.5% of 
total global deaths annually.

The WHO estimates that in 2019, two million lives and 53 million years of life were lost as a result of premature death, illness or disability from exposure to certain chemicals.

350,000 chemicals on the global market today

Nearly 70,000 have been
registered in the past decade.

There are an estimated 350,000 chemicals (or mixtures of chemicals) on the global market today. Nearly 70,000 (20%) have been registered in the past decade.

Habitable researchers continuously monitor sources to ensure Pharos users see the most up-to-date information.

Pharos is an approved GreenScreen Automator, scoring all chemicals in the database against the GreenScreen List Translator to identify chemicals of high concern.

Chemical Properties & Comparisons

Access CASRN, SMILES notations, structure, INCI names, compound groups, and physical properties. Comparisons let you see the roll-up scores and hazard summary tables of multiple chemicals in one quick view, which is useful for identifying safer alternatives.

Functional Uses

Search by chemicals’ functional use, like solvents, pesticides, chelating agents, fragrances, or preservatives. Pharos provides access to all publicly available chemical hazard assessments. These toxicological assessments evaluate the inherent hazards of chemicals across a broad range of health outcomes.

Resources

Resources tab provides links to information on that chemical in other databases that cover topics such as release, contamination, chemical manufacturing, and more. Links include PubChem, ChemIDPlus, OECD eChemPortal, ECHA, and HBN’s own research reports.

Ctrl F for chemical hazards.

Compare hazards of common chemicals, identify the most toxic, and find safer alternatives. Get alerts anytime a new hazard is added, so you’re always first to know about toxic threats.

Explore Pharos
Empowering less toxic choices.

Learn how consumer goods companies and university educators are using Pharos data to accelerate their impact.

Read case studies
We’ve got good chemistry.

Access a community of manufacturers, scientists, and academics that you can troubleshoot concerns and crowdsource solutions with.

Simplify chemical selection.

Find out how Pharos can make your job easier by identifying chemicals of concern and equipping you to research and compare chemical hazards.

Manufacturers

Scientists

Academia

Take the next step with ChemFORWARD.

While restricted substances lists indicate what not to use, they don’t always help you figure out what to use instead. You need a comprehensive chemical hazard assessment to answer this.

ChemFORWARD centralizes the Pharos dataset and thousands of chemical hazard assessments into a shared repository to scale access to comprehensive chemical hazard data. 

ChemFORWARD’s chemical hazard and safer alternatives repository is populated and continually updated by licensed toxicologists using a comprehensive, globally accepted methodology. Chemical hazard assessments are all peer-reviewed by independent toxicologists before being posted.

Each comprehensive chemical hazard assessment includes 24 human and environmental endpoints, routes of exposure, and classification rationales for each endpoint. The chemical is then assigned a roll-up hazard band for actionable decision making.