Connecting the Dots: Safety, Design, Operation

Jim Coogan, Siemens
Thomas Smith, 3Flow
Markus Schaufele, Northwestern University

The community concerned with sustainable laboratories generally understands that the effort and expense spent on ventilation is meant to keep workers safe. We correctly associate safety and ventilation, but how are they connected, and how connected are they?

This presentation aims to travel that conceptual path from occupational hazard, to selecting engineering controls, lab planning, mechanical design, performance specification, construction and commissioning, operation, monitoring and maintenance. We intend to drop enough bread crumbs that we can find our way back when operating information tells us something didn't perform, and we need to consider implications for safety and potential exposure.

Along the way, we will use the guide posts provided by relevant engineering and safety bodies.

Learning Objectives

  • Support decisions on building operation by connecting them to safety;
  • Manage decisions on allowable processes by connecting them with the capability of the facility;
  • Enhance Laboratory Ventilation Management Plans with a comprehensive, connected view; and
  • Interpret and apply physical facility specifications with safety as the goal.

Biographies:

Jim is a Principal in product development at Siemens SI with 40 years designing controls for mechanical systems; contributing to products ranging from room controllers to Internet-based interfaces and 20+ patents resulting from this work. He chaired several ASHRAE committees and led the recently completed revision of the Z9.5 Laboratory Ventilation Standard.

Tom Smith is the President and CEO of 3Flow. Mr. Smith has worked for more than 30 years helping facilities provide safe, efficient and sustainable labs. He holds degrees from NCSU and UNC in Engineering and Industrial Hygiene. He has served on numerous standards committees for ventilation and is a member of the I2SL Board of Directors.

Markus Schaufele, MS, CSP Manager, Standards, Compliance and Emergency Planning at Northwestern University is a member of American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), I2SL, and the Chicago Section of American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA). His expertise and interest center on laboratory safety, chemical hygiene, industrial hygiene, emergency response, sustainability, and safety training. Markus is a member of the committee that recently revised the ANSI Z9.5 Laboratory Ventilation Standard.

 

Note: Abstracts and biographies are displayed as submitted by the author(s) with the exception of minor edits for style, grammar consistency, and length.