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Siemens Industry, Inc. Printed in the USA

Building Technologies Division Document No. 149-997

1000 Deerfield Parkway Page 10 of 10

Buffalo Grove, IL 60089-4513

USA

corridor. Exhaust air from the laboratory suite,

laboratory rooms, fume hoods and biological safety

cabinets must not be re-circulated to other rooms or

parts of the facility, even when HEPA filtered. As

with chemical fume exhaust, the air exhausted from

biological laboratories must be discharged outside of

the building and dispersed in a manner that does not

pose a hazard to persons, other buildings, or allows

entrainment into building fresh air intakes.

Isolation Dampers

Biosafety cabinets are periodically decontaminated

using formaldehyde or vaporized hydrogen peroxide

while the laboratory room is unoccupied. If a spill or

release of some biological agent occurs within the

laboratory, the room itself may also need to be

decontaminated. The BMBL requires that BSL-3

laboratories be designed to accommodate these

procedures. Therefore, a bubble tight isolation

damper may be located between the room supply air

terminal and room supply air diffuser(s). Exhaust air

bubble tight isolation dampers should be located

after the juncture of all separate room exhaust

provisions and the final HEPA filters associated with

the room exhaust. If multiple laboratories have their

exhausts combined into a single manifold type

exhaust system, each individual laboratory room

exhaust must be capable of being isolated from the

other room exhausts by a bubble tight damper.

Access to such dampers, as well as all duct

components, should preferably be from outside of

the laboratory suite.

Maintenance and Housekeeping

Perhaps one of the most overlooked aspects of safe

and efficient biological laboratory operations is that

of maintenance. As with any type of facility,

maintenance tasks must be routinely performed.

This includes servicing laboratory equipment as well

as elements of the facility itself such as HVAC

components, plumbing fixtures, electrical light

fixtures, etc. Those performing such tasks must

receive proper training regarding the potential

hazards of the laboratory environment along with the

proper entry and exit procedures.

Laboratory suites should be designed to ensure that

maintenance personnel can only enter and exit by

the normal process. This includes clothes changing,

gowning, etc. In the case of maintenance workers,

additional problems can exist with respect to the

need to have tools and other equipment such as

ladders, portable lights, etc. If these items are

brought into a BSL-3 laboratory or support room,

there must be provision to ensure adequate

decontamination before being removed from the

laboratory suite. Since this may not be easily

accomplished, it is advantageous to provide a

storage provision within the laboratory suite for such

items so that workers do not have to bring in

commonly needed tools and equipment every time a

maintenance task needs to be done.

Housekeeping tasks are normally performed by

laboratory assistant personnel who are aware of the

potential hazards and safety procedures necessary

to protect against accidental contact with biological

agents, aerosols, and especially how to prevent the

potential migration of such agents outside of the

laboratory. It is recommended that adequate

housekeeping storage also be provided within the

laboratory suite for items normally needed for

housekeeping purposes. Items include cleaning

supplies, mops, janitorial sinks, disinfectants, wipes,

tissues, etc. Note that Figure 1 and Figure 5 show

Maintena

nce and Janitorial Closets within the

laboratory suite for this purpose.

In addition, there must be a procedure for the safe

removal and disposal of regularly discarded items

from within the laboratory suite, such as waste

paper, laboratory wipes, broken glassware, and

other refuse.