Planning Safe and Efficient Lab Spaces: Key Considerations for Emergency Equipment Placement and Compliance

Clay Stafford, subject matter expert at HERA Laboratory Planners

When designing laboratory spaces, safety and efficiency go hand in hand, especially when it comes to the placement of critical emergency equipment. Lab Design News spoke with Clay Stafford, a subject matter expert at HERA Laboratory Planners, to discuss how thoughtful planning and strategic design can enhance safety protocols, maintain compliance, and ensure the functionality of emergency equipment like eyewash stations and safety showers in laboratory environments. Clay shared insights on the integration of safety features, accommodating future changes, and best practices for ensuring that these systems remain accessible and operational during emergencies.

Be sure to watch the on demand presentation of Clay’s webinar, “Designing Laboratories for Hazardous Collections and Forensic Materials,” part of the 2024 Lab Design Digital Conference.

Q: How do you integrate safety considerations and equipment/systems when planning the overall layout of a laboratory facility?

A: Safety is always first (but after several questions are answered)! For instance, how many occupants are planned to use the space, what is the basis of the research, is the work accomplished by people or devices, what are the standing institutional protocols, etc. Where do we land exits, clear lines of sight, where are the sinks and do we want eyewash at all or several? Where do the safety showers make the most sense—are we using tempered water? Is there an opportunity to have a private shower area(s) in the facility (since most folks would be reluctant to strip completely in a cold stream of water for the full 10 minutes) to promote the proper duration of washdown being upheld? What is the cleanup procedure (drains or vacuum)?

Safety is why we build facilities around science, and every step in design process refines the response.

Q: Can you walk a lab manager through how safety equipment, such as emergency showers and eyewash stations, are accommodated in the design process? 

A: There are many ways to accommodate safety equipment in each lab—distributed at exit points, sink locations, etc. Additionally, the response needs to consider the range of safety devices—eye wash/safety shower, first aid, fire extinguishers, fire blankets, spill kits, PPE, shut-off controls stated in the institution/organizational SOPs and emergency plans. We have been returning to the idea of “Safety/Emergency Stations” to help consolidate all response gear into easily identified locations (call-out color, floor texture changes, lighting, etc.) throughout a lab or floor plate.

Q: Can you share best practices for ensuring that safety equipment, such as eye wash stations and emergency showers, remain accessible and functional in case of an emergency?

A: Great question and one that is gaining momentum in the design conversation. Understanding the audience and what can be done to make the response as inclusive (e.g.: height, reach, ability) as possible. Do we embrace universal design [by establishing] a new working height for all surfaces, changing the datum point for vertical integration? Do we have knee spaces at all sinks with eyewash? Where have we located the safety shower activation handle (wall or ceiling)? Are the doorways generous enough to allow wheelchair users to exit without creating a bottleneck? It all starts with understanding the audience!

Q: What steps do you take to integrate safety features like emergency shut off systems for gas or electricity into the design of lab facilities?

A: We recently had this conversation about “shutoffs” on a project and it became a very interesting discussion/debate.  What is the best location—in the lab, or just outside? What systems have shutoffs (gasses, power, other)? Do I want everything off as users exit or do I want control away from the incident (for instance, a situation in an unoccupied lab—why would you enter the hazard to disable it?). If the plan is cut power, what stays on (fume hoods—yes please)? Are the shutoffs zoned within a space or controlled by sector or floor? As building controls systems become more integrated and ubiquitous (even AI-supported), this becomes an increasingly important discussion of approach, strategy, and systems.

Q: Can you explain how safety protocols during lab design evolve to accommodate future expansions or changes in lab functionality, while ensuring that safety equipment is always up to standard?

A: EHS, industrial hygiene, and risk management are included in the design conversation from the outset of the process, first by explaining their existing strategies and why they exist, then into being at the table as the design and possibly the use case unfolds. Best practice experience from other projects, Tabletop walk-throughs, enhanced visualization, etc., help identify areas of concern and opportunity to improve occupant safety.

Good lab design is a conversation among many (managers, users, code and compliance, designers and engineers)—balanced and challenged with the goal of creating an elegant, timeless, yet responsive solution.