Safeguarding and Protection of Vulnerable Persons Policy

Document ID: PHF-POL-001  ·  Version: 1.2  ·  Status: Approved by the Board of Directors on October 19, 2026; implementation in progress  ·  Effective date: Pending

Policy owner: PulmHealth Foundation Board of Directors  ·  Safeguarding lead: Pending appointment  ·  Independent alternate: Pending appointment  ·  Review: Annually and after material incidents

1. Purpose and commitment

PulmHealth Foundation (the Foundation) seeks to protect the safety, dignity, privacy, and rights of people involved in its environmental research, education, outreach, and public digital services. It aims to prevent, recognize, report, and respond to abuse, exploitation, neglect, harassment, retaliation, and other safeguarding risks. Protection must be proportionate to actual activity and risk, with special attention to children and adults at increased risk.

2. Scope and organizational boundaries

This policy covers Foundation directors, officers, staff, volunteers, researchers, advisers, contractors, and persons acting for the Foundation, in connection with Foundation programs, communications, research, community engagement, the Foundation website, and its public CLEAR service.

CLEAR technology is developed and owned by PulmHealth LLC and licensed to the Foundation for public, noncommercial use. The Foundation controls personal information described in its Privacy Policy for operation of Foundation services. PulmHealth LLC's separate commercial services are outside this policy. Technical support or infrastructure access does not by itself permit access to confidential safeguarding files. Relevant agreements must define authorized access, confidentiality, and security.

3. Principles

The Foundation's safeguarding principles are safety, prevention, dignity, autonomy, proportionality, confidentiality, non-retaliation, accountability, scientific integrity, and respect for affected communities. No one may conceal a credible concern, retaliate against a good-faith reporter, or obstruct lawful reporting.

4. Definitions

• Child: A person under 18.
• Adult at increased risk: An adult whose circumstances may increase susceptibility to abuse, neglect, exploitation, or coercion, without presuming diminished capacity.
• Safeguarding concern: A report or reasonable suspicion of actual, threatened, or potential harm related to Foundation activities.
• Safeguarding incident: A concern requiring assessment, protective action, referral, or investigation.
• Safeguarding lead: A board-designated person coordinating safeguarding.
• Independent alternate: A board-designated contact for conflicts or concerns about leadership.
• Personal information: Information relating to an identified or reasonably identifiable person.
• Safeguarding incident register: A restricted record of reports, assessments, decisions, referrals, and outcomes.

5. Governance and responsibilities

The Board approves this policy, appoints a qualified Safeguarding Lead and independent alternate, establishes secure reporting and oversight, and reviews material incidents and policy performance. The lead receives concerns, arranges prompt assessment and protective steps, evaluates external reporting obligations with qualified advice as necessary, coordinates training, and maintains restricted records. The alternate receives matters involving the lead or organizational leadership. An implicated person must not control their own investigation.

A safeguarding matter involving a data breach must also be referred to the designated privacy/security responsible person, without granting either role unrestricted access to the other's records.

6. Activity-based risk assessment

Before direct engagement with minors, adults at increased risk, or identifiable sensitive research participants, a project lead must document foreseeable risks, consent and supervision requirements, communication channels, partner responsibilities, data handling, emergency response, and jurisdictional reporting. Higher-risk activities require appropriate approval before starting. Public analysis of environmental measurements or school locations alone does not automatically constitute direct human-participant research.

7. Children and minors

Consistent with Privacy Policy section 13, public services are not directed to children under 13; the Foundation will not knowingly collect their personal information online without legally required parental consent. Ages 13 through 17 should use public services with parent or guardian involvement and should not submit sensitive information. The Foundation will not knowingly use minors' personal information for sale, targeted advertising, or covered significant-effect profiling.

Direct participation by children requires risk-appropriate parental permission, age-appropriate assent, supervision, approved communication methods, screening, and research ethics review when applicable. CLEAR may display publicly available school and childcare facility locations but must not intentionally publish identifiable student, attendance, or child-specific medical records. Improperly collected children's information must be assessed, restricted, and handled according to applicable law.

8. Adults at increased risk

Provide accessible information, accommodations, informed and voluntary consent, and safeguards against coercion and exploitation when warranted. Disability, illness, economic disadvantage, or proximity to pollution does not by itself establish incapacity.

9. Research and participant protections

When applicable, obtain appropriate institutional or ethics determinations, informed consent, parental permission and assent, confidentiality controls, data minimization, withdrawal procedures, and investigator accountability. Distinguish public environmental data analysis from regulated human-subject research. Do not claim institutional sponsorship or endorsement without authorization.

10. CLEAR-specific safeguards

CLEAR presents source-linked environmental measurements, public records, facility information, geographic analyses, models, and potentially AI-generated interpretations. Clearly distinguish observations, estimates, facility reports, and inferences, and disclose material uncertainty and data age. Proximity does not establish individual exposure, injury, or causation.

Location searches may reveal homes, workplaces, or sensitive interests. Follow Privacy Policy section 3.3: limit collection and retention, respect device permissions, and avoid combining queries with identifiable health details. Public-source records follow Privacy Policy section 2 and applicable correction/source-attribution procedures.

AI-assisted features follow Privacy Policy section 5. Do not solicit personal medical records, identifiable child information, or safeguarding reports in general AI prompts. Do not submit confidential safeguarding or participant records to public CLEAR AI features or unapproved AI vendors. AI output is not an individual diagnosis or definitive regulatory finding.

Keep public environmental data, routine website/CLEAR operational data, identifiable participant research records, and confidential safeguarding files logically separated with least-privilege access. Safeguarding records must not enter public datasets, search indexes, analytics pipelines, or general-purpose AI systems.

11. Privacy and data governance

This policy supplements the Foundation Privacy Policy, particularly sections 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13. It does not authorize collection, use, disclosure, or retention beyond that policy and applicable law. If a new activity requires materially different processing, review and update relevant notices and consent mechanisms before beginning.

Collect only necessary information. Use it for safety, lawful reporting, authorized assessment, oversight, and related legal purposes. Restrict access to those with a documented need. Disclose only as lawfully necessary to protect people, report to authorities, conduct authorized investigations, obtain professional advice, or meet legal obligations. Apply appropriate safeguards to providers. Honor applicable privacy requests while protecting third-party confidentiality, investigations, and lawful exemptions.

Adopt a written safeguarding retention schedule, secure disposal, and legal-hold process. Do not set an arbitrary universal deletion period. A safeguarding-related security incident must be evaluated under privacy and breach-notification procedures.

12. Professional conduct

Prohibit abuse, neglect, exploitation, harassment, intimidation, sexual misconduct arising from positions of trust, unauthorized private contact with minors, inappropriate photography or recording, improper disclosure, retaliation, evidence tampering, and obstruction of lawful investigation. Require approved channels and appropriate supervision for direct interaction with minors.

13. Reporting channels

• Safeguarding Lead: Pending appointment.
• Independent Alternate: Pending appointment.
• Dedicated confidential reporting channel: Pending activation.
• General Foundation contact: info@pulmhealthfoundation.org (general inquiries only unless secure safeguarding intake is separately verified).

The Foundation must establish and test a restricted reporting mailbox or secure form before representing confidential intake as operational. Allow good-faith reports without requiring proof; support anonymous reporting when feasible. For immediate danger, contact emergency services or relevant protective authorities directly rather than waiting for Foundation review. Do not promise absolute confidentiality.

14. Incident response

Promptly assess immediate danger and take protective action. Determine affected individuals, whether minors or adults at increased risk are involved, external reporting requirements, privacy/security implications, and the need for an independent investigation. Document facts and decisions without unnecessary personal details. Internal reporting never replaces an individual's mandatory external reporting duties. Reporting requirements depend on jurisdiction, role, and circumstances. Preserve evidence, prevent conflicts of interest, cooperate with lawful authorities, and document corrective action and case closure. Closure does not supersede legal holds or outside investigations.

15. Restricted safeguarding incident register

Maintain a confidential register separate from public CLEAR data, contact submissions, routine logs, analytics, and AI systems. Record only what is appropriate: case ID, date/channel, concern category, risk, assigned handler, protective steps, referrals, reporting decisions, status, closure rationale, and retention/legal-hold status. Keep detailed evidence separately where appropriate. Enforce least-privilege access and auditable changes where technically feasible. Never expose the register through public CLEAR or ordinary website administration interfaces.

16. Confidentiality and non-retaliation

Share information only with persons who have a legitimate, lawful need to know. Explain that confidentiality is limited by safety and legal duties. Prohibit retaliation for good-faith reporting or cooperation. An unsubstantiated good-faith concern is not itself misconduct.

17. Recruitment and training

Use proportionate references, screening where required or justified, safeguarding orientation, privacy/confidentiality instruction, reporting awareness, and participant-protection training. Document completion. Ensure the lead and alternate receive role-appropriate training.

18. Partners and collaborators

For programs involving direct vulnerable-person engagement, written arrangements should allocate safeguarding, consent, ethics, confidentiality, reporting, training, and investigation responsibilities. Independent institutions retain their own legal and professional duties. Do not imply endorsement without permission.

19. Community engagement and environmental justice

Engage communities respectfully and accessibly; avoid stigmatizing neighborhoods or asserting unsupported health conclusions. Avoid coercive recruitment and unnecessary sensitive data collection. Communicate scientific limitations and respond appropriately to credible correction concerns.

20. Records and oversight

Keep restricted records of risk assessments, screening/training, incident actions, external reporting decisions, and board review. Apply documented retention, security, and legal-hold rules. Do not repurpose safeguarding records for marketing, public research, unrelated analytics, or AI training. The Board reviews the policy annually and after significant incidents, legal changes, or material expansion of direct participant activities.

21. Related policies and laws

Read with the Foundation Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, CLEAR Data Sources and Methodology Notice, applicable CLEAR legal notices, research ethics procedures, security and incident response procedures, and applicable child/adult protection and privacy laws. Regulatory references include COPPA and relevant state privacy and breach laws where applicable. This policy does not imply the Foundation is covered by every named law.

22. Implementation prerequisites

Before describing this policy as fully implemented, the Foundation must:

1. obtain board approval;
2. designate and train the lead and alternate;
3. establish and test confidential reporting;
4. adopt incident escalation procedures;
5. establish the restricted incident register;
6. approve retention/legal-hold rules;
7. verify privacy notice and CLEAR notice alignment; and
8. publish approved contact instructions.

A board may adopt the governance framework with tracked action items, but no unimplemented control may be represented as operational.

23. Approval record

• Approving body: PulmHealth Foundation Board of Directors
• Approval date: October 19, 2026
• Effective date: Pending
• Lead and alternate: Pending
• Next review: One year after adoption

PulmHealth Foundation, a Colorado nonprofit corporation.