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in the Chemical laboratory Edited by NORMAN V. STEERE, 140 Melbourne Ave., S.E. Minneapolis, Minn. 5541 4
XCXIV. New Fire Safety Standard Adopted for Laboratories in Health-Related Institutions Norman V. Steere, CSP. Safety Consultant. 740 Melbourne Ave.. S.E. Minneapolis. Minn. 55414 On May 16, 1973, the National Fire Proteetion Association (NFPA) adopted a new standard for fire safety in laboratories in healtb-related institutions. The new standard is a revised and broadened edition of the NFPA Safety Standard for Hospital Laboratories, NFPA No. 56C-1970, which was adopted by reference in the 1970 standards of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals and the College of American Pathologists. The management of medical laboratories should be particularly interested in the new standard since it may became part of accreditation standards. NFPA standards are commonly adopted by reference as regulations in many States and municipalities, so tbat the new standard should he of great interest in all laboratories in health-related institutions. The new standard is known as the NFPA Safety Standard for Laboratories in Health-Related Institutions, NFPA No. 56C-1973, and copies will be available after July 1 for about $1.00 from the National Fire Protection Association, 60 Batterymarch St., Boston, Mass. 02110. The NFPA Safety Standard for Hospital Laboratories was revised extensivelv in accord wrth a recent general polic). of rewnting all NFPA standards zo they are appropriate for adoption as legal regulations. This was done by reviewing all "should" statements and other recommendations to see which should be made mandatory ("shall") and retained in the body of the standard, and which should be segregated in the Appendix with all advisory material and non-mandatary recommendations. Approximately thirteen recommendations in the 1970 edition of NFPA No. 56C were rewritten as mandatory requirements in the 1973 edition, and advisory recommendations were moved into the Appendix. The 1973 edition of NFPA No. 56C broadens the scope of the standard and makes significant changes in requirements for corridor doors, waste disposal, eleetrical equipment, chemical quantity limits, and laboratory safety officer responsibilities.
BROADENED SCOPE OF THE STANDARD While the 1970 edition was entitled "Safety Standard for Hospital Labarato-
ries", the stated scope was broader-"The safety standard is concerned primarily with protection against fire and explosion hazards created by laboratory activities in hospitals and healtb-related institutions." The 1973 edition extends that by adding . .including nursing homes, clinics, and physicians' and dentists' offices." The 1973 edition also drops the definition of Hospital Laboratory and redefines Laboratory in a way that clearly extends the coverage of the Standard to all research laboratories in medical centers, and to all laboratories in any building in which patient care is provided. The 1973 edition defines Laboratory as follows: "Laboratory shall mean a room or group of rooms located in any part of a huilding providing patient care, and intended to serve activities involving procedures for investigation, diagnosis or treatment in which flammable, combustible or oxidizing or potentially asphyxiating materials are to be used." Although the Standard goes on to list a number of areas to which the Standard is not intended to apply, almost every laboratory using any chemicals will he included in the definition eiven above. The areas not intended to be regulated by the Standard include "anesthetizing locations, isolated frozen section laboratories, areas in which oxygen is administered, or ancillary areas such as offices, waiting areas, conference rooms, washing and sterilizing rooms, blood donor rooms in which flammable, combustible or otherwise hazardous materials normally used in laboratory procedures are not present, and clinical service areas not using hazardous materiels." The exceptions can be misleading since many materials used in laboratories may not he considered "hazardous" but still fall within the definitions of "flammable, combustible, midizing, or potentially asphyxiating." Examples are ethyl alcohol, mineral oil, hydrogen peroxide, and nitrogen.
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NEW REQUIREMENTS FOR LABORATORY DOORS TO CORRIDORS The 1973 Standard continues the requirement that hospital laboratories shall he separated from surrounding hospital
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areas and from exit corridors by construction that has a minimum fire-resistance rating of one hour, and adds new specifications for the doors in such separation walls. The new requirements for separation doors are that they be C-label, be equipped to be self-positioning, and be arranged for automatic closing by the operation of smoke detectors. Since the Standard does not limit these requirements to new construction the" a n d v also to existing hospital laboratories, and if enforced will cast an estimated minimum expense of $500 for each opening. C-label doors provide a predictable degree of fire resistance because they are built to the specifications of a prototype which has passed a 45-minute fire enposure test a t a nationally-recognized testing laboratory. Doors with a specifically predictable fire resistance can be identified by a serially-numbered metal label which is mounted on the hinge edge of the door and bears the certification of Underwriters Laboratories or other testing service. Interior stairwell doors will usually hear a Blabel. C-label doors are permitted t o have up to nine square feet of glass area if the glass is Yd-inch thick wired glass set in a steel frame. Since there was previously no explicit requirement for rated fire-resistance for doors separating laborataries from corridors, most hospital laboratory doors will have no label of fire resistance and many are likely to he inadequate by any standard. Laboratory doors tbat are 1%inch solid wood bonded core doors with all openings protected by %inch wired glass in steel frames will be equivalent to the doors required on existing patient rooms and can be expected to provide about 20 minutes of fire resistance. Doors tbat are thinner in any part, or hollow core, or not solid wood, or glazed with nan-wired glass can be expected to fail in a few minutes of fire exposure. If doors of anv laboratow are reolaced to protect the laboratory or the other parts of the building, the replacement doors should he labeled to assure a rated fire resistance. In anticipation of possible enforcement of the 1973 Standard it would be wise to consider providing C-label doors, and hardware which has latching, self-positioning, and smoke detection releasing features.
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WASTE DISPOSAL The 1973 requirement for waste disposal is that "Disposal of hazardous materials shall be accomplished off the premises by (Continued on pageA3681 Volume 50, Number 7, July 1973
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a commercial disposal specialist, or at a safe location away from the hospital huilding, by competent personnel using procedures established in concurrence with local fire authorities." The 1973 Appendix provides information that water-miscible liquids, such as acetone, may he flushed down building drains by diluting each pint with at least three gallons of cold water, but warns that "This precaution for minimizing flammable vapor concentrations in huilding drains may not be acceptable to pollution control authorities."
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT The 1973 Standard includes revised precautions to prevent ignition of flammable vapors, in refrigerators and other equipment, and requirements for emergency electrical service far essential laboratory operations.
REFRIGERATORS Since ordinary domestic and commercial refrigerators have electrical contacts or bulbs which can ignite flammable vapors in the storage compartment, flammable liauids must not be stored in such refrieerat&. The 1973 Standard specifically G o hibits storage of flammable liquids in ordi-
nary refrigerators and requires refrigerators not approved for storage of flammable liquids to be labeled to prohibit such storage. The Appendix cites a number of serious explosions and fires that have resulted from storage of flammable liquids in ordinary refrigerators. Refrigerators that may safely be used for storage of flammable liquids must have been designed or modified so that the starage compartment, the door, and the door frame have no possible source of ignition of flammable vapors, and electrical equipment outside of the compartment must meet other requirements. Electrical equipment outside the camoartment of a "Flammable Mater>als Sturage Refr~gerator" (called a "Laboratory-Sale Refrigera. tor" until Mny 16, 19731 m u d meet one of the following requirements: "(a) Be suitable for Class I, Division 2 locations if located in areas such as the machine compartment a t the bottom of the refrigerator where hazardous vapors may he present due to leakage or opening of the storage compartment door; or (b) Installed above the storage compartment or on the outside surface of the refrigerator where exposure to hazardous concentrations of vapors will be minimal; or (c) Be installed in a location suhject to positive ventilation inherent in the refrigeration which prevents aeeumulations of hazardous concentrations of vapors." (Squirrel-cage induction motors without brushes, switching mechanisms, or other
contacts are permitted in Class I, Division 2 locations by the National Electrical Code.) "Lahoratory-Safe Refrigerators" are commercially available from several manufacturers. Available a t higher cost are special refrigerators which are rated as "explosion-proof" for use in explosive eoncentrations of certain common solvent vapors. Although such refrigerators are not explosion-proof in flammable coneentrations of acetylene, hydrogen and several other gases, they are suitable far use in Gmup C and D atmospheres which include flammable concentrations of ethyl ether, ethylene, acetone, alcohols, toluene and xylenes.
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT AND FLAMMABLE CONCENTRATIONS The National Electrical Code, NFPA No. 70-1971, defines three classes of hazardous locations, but only Class I is likely to occur in laboratories. "Class I locations are those in which flammable gases or vapors are or may he present in the air in quantities sufficient to produce explosive or ignitihle mixtures." The 1973 Safety Standard for Laboratories in Health-%lated Institutions does not classify such laboratories as hazardous locations, and the NFPA Sectional Committee on Chemistry Laboratories specified in their published draft of a proposed tentative standard that lahorataries shall not he elassified as hazardous locations under normal conditions. Explanatory statements in the Appendim of the 1973 Standard urge that hazards be recognized even though general and special ventilation will usually prevent the accumulation of flammahle concentrations of gases and vapors in hospital laboratories. The Appendix includes this advice "Recommended practice is to evaluate at least annually what combustible and flammable liquids and gases are being used in the laboratory, what electrical equipment is exposed to flammable vapors and gases routinely or under reasonably foreseeable circumstances, whether special listed and labeled electrical equipment is available and justified or whether equivalent safety can be provided more economically and practically by ventilation or quantity limitations." A great deal of other excellent advice is contained in the appendix of the 1973 Standard. One of the requirements in the Standard specifies that when electrical heating equipment is intended for use with flammable or combustible liquids ". . .its eleetrical components shall be explosionproof, intrinsically safe, or ventilated in a manner that will prevent accumulation of flammable atmospheres under normal conditions of operations."
ESSENTIAL ELECTRICAL SERVICE The 1973 Standard specifies that "Task illumination and selected receptacles in blood matching areas, hematology areas and selected henches in microbiology and chemistry areas, as determined by the deA368
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partment head, shall be connected to the Critical Branch of the Emergency Electrical System." This requirement is obviously limited to hospitals that have such special electrical systems. Regarding ventilation the 1973 Standard contains the requirement that "In new construction the source of power for equipment intended to ventilate fume hoods shall be the equipment system of the essential electrical system; the wiring shall he arranged for automatic connection to the alternate source, as described in NFPA No. 76A-1971, Essential Electrical Systems for Hospitals, Section 324(d)." It i s the opinion of this author that before this requirement is applied, it should he evaluated to he reasonably sure that the cost is justified, because many clinical laboratory uses of hoods will be stopped safely when hood power fails.
tions, NFPA No. 56C-1973, should be directed to the Secretary of the NFPA Seetional Committee on Hospital Laborataria,James B. Black, in care of the National Fire Protection Association, 60 Batterymareh St., Baston, Mass. 02110. Members of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists or the American Society for Medical Technology may direct comments through their organization, since representatives were added to the NFPA committee late in 1972.
CHEMICAL QUANTITY LIMITS The 1973 Standard continues the requirement that established laboratory practices shall limit the working supplies of flammable and combustible liquids, hut drops the 1970 limit of a two-day supply. Both editions set a limit of 10 gallons of flammable and combustible liquids outside of an approved storage cabinet or storage room. The storage limit of 60 gallons in an approved cabinet, and the required fire resistance for such cabinets are identical in both editions and the Standards of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Tests have not yet been conducted to determine whether standard wood laboratory furniture will be able to qualify as approved storage cabinet. The limits on workine .. sunnlies af campressed gas cylmder; has been increased in the 1Y:J Standard from the number actually connected for use to a maximum of one extra cylinder for each one connected for use. ~
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LABORATORY SAFETY OFFICER RESPONSIBILITIES The 1970 Standard established a requirement that "A professionally qualified laboratory safety officer shall be appointed to supervise safe practices." The 1973 Standard adds the responsibility for "the strategy and tactics of fire fighting in hospital laboratories, and the recognition of the hazards to personnel engaged in firstaid suppression of fire." The 1973 Appendix recommends that "The laboratory safety officer should from time to time conduct orientation and refresher courses for laboratory personnel in the nature of combustible and flammable liquids and gases, first aid fire fighting, use of protective equipment, safe conduct of laboratory operations and reviews of unsafe conditions and operations observed or reported."
COMMENTS ON THE STANDARD Comments on the Safety Standard for Laboratories in Health-Related InstituVolume 50, Number 7.July 1973
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