Fume Hood and Roof Safety Program

Plant Engineering works with Architectural and Engineering Services (AES) in developing Design Guidelines and Standards. (Click on the link below for current UM Design Guidelines and Standards.)

Design Guidelines:

The fume hood and roof safety program was started by Plant engineering back in the early 90’s as a result of acknowledgment that many of the trade’s personnel could possibly be placed in unhealthy locations on the roof of buildings that have fume hoods discharging at the roof level. The program became more formal in 2000 when funding was secured to go through all of the campus buildings and evaluate each building that had fume hoods and see if each fume hood exhaust system meets the developed campus standards for fume hood exhaust. The standard has the criteria of 3000 feet per minute discharge at a minimum of 10 foot above the roof. The information was presented in a database of drawings that show location of each fume hood and ductwork from the fume hood to the servicing exhaust fan. Each exhaust fan is shown with the fans PM number and designation if it meets the exhaust criteria.

Part of the programs product was to have a simple effective method of fan indication of use on the roofs that all personnel could understand. The solution was fans that meet the criteria were tapped on the roof with a red and white stripped tape. Fans that don’t meet the criteria are tapped with a solid red tape. Fans that occupy the same roof as fume hood exhaust fans that are for general exhaust are tapped with a green and white stripped. The tape convention was placed on a sticker that is now placed at all roof accesses where the roof contains a fume hood exhaust.

The benefits of the program are:

• Identifying all buildings with fume hoods on campus.
• Documenting and linking fume hoods to the appropriate exhaust fan.
• Identifying and assessing installation or design problems.
• Linking with the PM program by using that programs bar code number.
• Providing clear policies and procedures working with OSEH.
• It makes scheduling shutdown for any activities on the roof easier.
• Tagging of the fans makes it easy for personnel on the roof to know where is safe and where it is not.
• Brought education of personnel on roof access procedures to the forefront.

The Users of the program are:

• Trades personnel
• Engineers and Architects
• Inspectors
• Contractors
• OSEH personnel
• Construction management
• Other University units

Presently there are 56 campus building that have fume hoods in them, totaling approximately 1800 fume hoods.