Relevance of lab hoods for ISO 14001 conformance

[schaeen]

Are there ISO 14001 requirements that are relevant to our use of laboratory fume hoods? There are no legal requirements (that we're aware of) regarding our small (I mean, miniscule), mixed emissions. The 3rd party auditor's specific concern was our face velocity record. For employee safety reasons, we maintain a certain face velocity; but, safety is not an ISO 14001 concern. Why is the auditor concerned about our lab hood records?

 

[ChrisM]

I would have thought that this was more an health & safety issue rather than environmental; EN45001.
There may be a requirement or suggestion from a chemical manufacturer about how many times per hour the air in a room should be changed, or how fast the airflow should be to carry fumes away.... of course there will be an effect on the environment if inadequate filtration is used etc.

The lab auditor may be concerned about your maintenance records for hoods and their filters, and how you handle "contaminated" filters.... what are the actual concerns that he/she has raised, and against what clauses of the Standard or legislation?

 

[Randy]

Why is the auditor concerned about our lab hood records?

Simple, the auditor doesn't know what he/she is doing and is probably a product of the shake & bake competency process. I've been doing 14001 since 1997-98 & 3rd party CB stuff since 1991) and I couldn't care less about hoods unless they are covered under an air permit of some type.

What other crazy crap did this person dream up?

 

[schaeen]

The commenting auditor was here for an AS9100D audit but, knowing that we're ramping up to ISO 14001 certification, she said that ISO 14001 auditors will write us up for not having the velocity record posted on the hood itself. I could see a write up against AS9100D 7.1.4 but I don't see how ISO 14001 applies. I didn't ask follow up questions because she seemed to indicate it was outside the scope of the current audit and I was too ignorant at that time of 14001 to be able to talk about it.

 

[Randy]

she said that ISO 14001 auditors will write us up for not having the velocity record posted on the hood itself.

Well for the sake of being polite, she doesn't know what the *hit she's talking about. You can tell her I said so and send her my way. Oh yeah, tell her I'm going on 35+ years in environmental & safety management as well........Probably was in grade school when I started.

 

[ChrisM]

.....she said that ISO 14001 auditors will write us up for not having the velocity record posted on the hood itself. I could see a write up against AS9100D 7.1.4 but I don't see how ISO 14001 applies.....

There is absolutely nothing in AS9100 that requires the air velocity to be recorded on hoods - what if the hood has several settings for example? Totally impractical and I don't believe that the Standard mentions hoods specifically, in any event. I've not currently got access to a copy of ISO14001 but from previous encounters with it, I would find it hard to believe that it requires hoods to be marked with their airflow velocity measurements

 

[Randy]

There is absolutely nothing in AS9100 that requires the air velocity to be recorded on hoods - what if the hood has several settings for example? Totally impractical and I don't believe that the Standard mentions hoods specifically, in any event. I've not currently got access to a copy of ISO14001 but from previous encounters with it, I would find it hard to believe that it requires hoods to be marked with their airflow velocity measurements

It ain't there.