Substance families are used to define a group of substances that share an aggregated threshold value when performing a regulation analysis on the Regulation for Eco-footprint page. Regulation threshold values for a substance family can be set in the Regulated Substances tab of the Regulation for Eco-footprint page, just like it's done for other substances.
This activity is used to add substances or compounds that should be included in the substance family. The substance family can have a defined threshold substance, which must be the same as the threshold substance of the included compounds or the threshold basic substance. If no threshold substance is indicated for the substance family, any substance can be added, except for other substance families.
When adding contained substances you can enter a threshold substance contribution value in %. This indicates the proportion of the substances weight, that should be considered when aggregating the total substance family weight. Typically this can be used for compounds where the threshold substance only constitutes a fraction of the compounds total weight.
The substance that will be used as the substane family must be defined with its Environmental Substance Type set to Substance Family.
If a Threshold Substance is indicated for the Substance Family, substances to be included must either be the threshold substance itself as the base substance or compounds with the same threshold substance.
The substance family can be used as a regulated substance in eco-footprint regulations in order to define an aggregated threshold for a group of similar substances.