How should laboratories control facility ventilation?

A laboratory could contain anything between harmless blood samples and dangerous viruses. This reality prompts scientists and other personnel to follow stringent protocols in the event of an accident.

While many pathogens need physical contact to infect potential hosts, others simply need the air around them. That’s why lab technicians need to pay close attention to facility ventilation and indoor air quality.

Establishing a safe, comfortable working environment 

In addition to ensuring airborne pathogens, chemicals and other hazards do not get out of control, ventilation systems are key to ensuring lab workers are operating in comfortable conditions. Many biotechnology facilities are not designed to allow natural airflow for security reasons.

Therefore, it’s important that scientists conducting tasks in underground or sealed facilities are getting enough oxygen. The World Health Organization (WHO) released a laboratory biosafety manual, which contained a list of questions facility administrators should address:

• Is the laboratory’s temperature comfortable?
• Does the ventilation system exchange air at least six times every hour?
• Are high-efficiency particulate arrestance filters located in the ventilation system?
• Does the ventilation system negatively impact the functionality of the biological safety cabinets and fume cupboards?

This lists covers both security concerns and employees’ well-being. To assuage these concerns, facility managers would do well to purchase data loggers that send them temperature and indoor air quality data on a consistent basis.

Gauging mechanical ventilation operability 

Due to the security protocols associated with biotech laboratories, mechanical ventilation systems are often quite complex. For instance, if a technician drops a vial containing a dangerous airborne virus, he or she will have to shut down the HVAC solution in order to contain the hazard.

However, what if the ventilation system malfunctions? As one could imagine, this may compromise a lab’s safety protocols. Thankfully, there are ways to anticipate failures.

Monash University’s lab design guide detailed several items HVAC mechanics should address when assessing a ventilation system’s operability. For example, technicians may use anemometers with volume flow hoods to determine how well or poorly intake and exhaust systems are working.

If it’s possible, HVAC mechanics must use instruments that identify contaminants such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide. These substances may compromise a laboratory’s cleanliness, thus negatively impacting experiments and other work.

Professionals should be aware that ventilation solutions must not mix air supplies with rooms that don’t serve as laboratories. With respect to this concern, consulting the facility blueprints is advisable.

In addition, poor ventilation can effect lab technicians’ productivity. Laboratory technicians must remain alert whenever working with dangerous materials, thus emphasising the need for proper airflow.