Fume Hood Safety Series: Mitigating Risk in Fume Hood Use: Prevention Is a Bargain
Chip Albright, founder and president of Fume Hood Certified; 2025 Lab Design Conference workshop leader; Fume Hood Risk Mitigation Digital Conference speaker
Chip Albright, founder and president of Fume Hood Certified, is a globally recognized authority in laboratory safety and equipment, specializing in fume hood performance. With more than 40 years of industry experience, he offers extensive knowledge of safety standards, regulations, and cutting-edge technological advancements. In this Fume Hood Safety Series, he shares valuable insights and cautions for professionals involved in laboratory design, construction, and renovation.
Chip will be leading a workshop on “Validating Fume Hood Safety and Mitigating Risk” at the 2025 Lab Design Conference in Denver on May 11. Register now to secure your spot in this workshop, as space is limited! (Please note: This workshop is a separate add-on to your Lab Design Conference ticket.)
Additionally, you can watch Chip’s free on-demand webinar, “Your Chemical Fume Hood Is On Fire: What Do You Do?” from the Fume Hood Risk Mitigation Digital Conference. Register now to access the free webinar, and contact us at aia@labdesignconference.com to earn AIA LU/HSW credit for completing the video.
In laboratory environments, risk is inherent—but how we manage that risk defines our outcomes. Among the most vital yet misunderstood tools in any lab is the fume hood, a first line of defense against chemical exposure, fires, and airborne hazards. While many labs rely on these devices, far fewer understand what true safe performance looks like or how to ensure it. Fume hood risk mitigation must go beyond compliance checkboxes to a deep-rooted culture of safety, education, training, and accountability.
At its core, a fume hood’s job is to capture, contain, dilute, and exhaust harmful substances. But just owning a fume hood doesn’t ensure safety. A high-performance hood that’s improperly installed or poorly maintained can be just as dangerous as having no protection at all. Many still rely on face velocity as the primary performance indicator, when in fact it’s turbulence—not velocity—that dictates whether harmful substances are being safely contained.
One of the most pressing problems in labs today is the overemphasis on velocity snapshots, which merely show air movement at one moment in time. This approach ignores the dynamic and ever-changing conditions within a lab: door openings, cross drafts, unstable room pressures, and even a researcher’s body movement can cause containment failure. Containment—not airflow speed—is the true metric of safety. If a hood isn’t capturing and containing hazardous materials, it's not protecting anyone.
Risk mitigation starts with understanding the actual threats. Fume hoods are vulnerable to loss of containment, especially under turbulent conditions. All hoods will fail at some point—it’s not if, but when. The key is to minimize how often it happens, measure how severe the leakage is, and assess the danger of the materials in use. A small failure with highly toxic substances can be catastrophic.
Training is a foundational pillar in mitigation. Every user must be trained before using a hood—no exceptions. Understanding how to use the sash properly, recognizing emergency procedures, and knowing where to find safety equipment can be the difference between a minor scare and a major disaster. The sash, often overlooked, is a critical safety barrier—protecting against splashes, fires, and runaway reactions.
Routine containment testing, including dynamic challenge testing, should be mandatory. Visual tools like Tri-Color Airflow Visualizers allow users to see turbulence in real time, providing a more intuitive understanding of when a hood is safe to work in.
Finally, safety culture must shift from “compliance” to “care.” Too often, institutions focus on avoiding liability instead of preventing harm. The consequences of even a small incident—loss of research, downtime, reputation damage, and medical expenses—are staggering. Prevention, by contrast, is a bargain.
Fume hoods are essential safety devices, but only if they work properly. Managing risk in fume hood use is not just about equipment—it’s about people, policies, and priorities. It’s time we changed the conversation—from velocity to containment, from compliance to culture, from risk tolerance to risk management. Because in the lab, safety is no accident.
