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Smarter Hazmat Planning Starts Before Design Begins
From chemical inventories and hazardous material workflows to laboratory suites and AHJ collaboration, BWBR's Nate Roisen and Kat Lauer explored how proactive planning can create safer, more adaptable laboratory facilities at the 2026 Lab Design Conference
Structural and Operational Lessons from the USF Marine Lab Fire
A devastating lightning fire forces the University of South Florida to navigate complex facility relocation, insurance assessments, and the reconstruction of bespoke academic infrastructure
Explosion-Proof Lab Design: Electrical Classifications for Pilot Plants
When your process scales up from milliliters to gallons, a standard laboratory outlet can become a detonator. Here's what architects, engineers, and lab managers need to know about hazardous location electrical classifications before breaking ground on a pilot plant.
Unexpected Risks, Planned Solutions: Safety in Lab Design
A recent explosion at a Harvard lab underscores the need for resilient, access-controlled, behavior-informed, and well-designed laboratory environments, and expert Dan Scungio outlines how thoughtful planning—from materials and infrastructure to low-cost upgrades, user behavior, and risk-based zoning—can prevent minor incidents from escalating into catastrophic ones
Fire Safety Concerns in Laboratory Design
Fire safety in laboratories requires holistic, intentional design that integrates code compliance, hazard mitigation, resilient infrastructure, and support for staff preparedness to prevent, contain, and respond to incidents while protecting people, research, and operations
Fume Hood Safety Series: What Causes Fume Hood Fires—and How to Prevent Them
Preventing fume hood fires requires prioritizing containment over velocity, maintaining clean and uncluttered hoods, using explosion-proof equipment, conducting regular performance testing, providing thorough user training, and establishing robust emergency procedures
Fume Hood Safety Series: Mitigating Risk in Fume Hood Use: Prevention Is a Bargain
Effective fume hood risk mitigation requires prioritizing containment over velocity, implementing proper training, conducting routine dynamic testing, and fostering a safety culture focused on prevention rather than mere compliance
Fume Hood Safety Series: What to Do in Case of a Fume Hood Fire
Proper training, preparation, and prompt action—lowering the sash, activating alarms, evacuating, and reporting—are essential for effectively responding to a fire in a laboratory fume hood and preventing a minor incident from escalating into a disaster
Fume Hood Safety Series: What Is a Good Metric for Judging a Hood’s Safe Performance?
The true metric for fume hood safety is effective containment under real-world conditions, assessed through dynamic testing like the ASHRAE 110 protocol, rather than relying solely on face velocity measurements
Fume Hood Safety Series: What Makes a Fume Hood Safe?
A safe fume hood ensures user protection through effective containment, regular testing, proper training, and minimizing turbulence, rather than relying solely on face velocity measurements