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Collaborative Robotics (Cobots): Safety & Spacing
As collaborative robots (cobots) break free from traditional safety cages to work directly alongside scientists, laboratory architects must design specialized spatial buffer zones and ergonomic workflows that ensure human-robot collaboration is both efficient and harmless.
Designing for Containment: The High Stakes of Fume Hood Specification
Fume hood failures often result not from the equipment itself but from room design, airflow dynamics, and user interactions—a new book emphasizes specifying and testing hoods under real-world, dynamic conditions to ensure long-term lab safety
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
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
Fume Hood Safety Series: Accident Prevention Tips When Working with a Fume Hood
Effective fume hood usage and proper ventilation are crucial for lab safety, as accidents can lead to serious harm, research setbacks, legal issues, and reputational damage—so here are practical tips to help prevent them
Event Review: Fume Hood Risk Mitigation Digital Conference
The webinars in the Fume Hood Risk Mitigation Digital Conference are available for free on demand viewing