Safety and Hazard Containment
Storage Cabinets According to BS EN 14470; Fire-protected Storage of Hazardous Materials in 21st Century Laboratories
Sascha Kunkel, Asecos
In laboratories where people work with various types of hazardous materials, flexible and safe storage of these materials is extremely important. Inappropriate storage of hazardous materials can not only lead to serious environmental and property damage, but, in the worst case, can even cause loss of human life.
Cabinets with a proven fire resistance class designed and manufactured in accordance with BS EN 14470 enable modern laboratories a virtual fail safe method of storing hazardous and flammable chemicals:
• toxic, • flammable or • potentially explosive substances • and/or of substances with combinations of the stated dangerous characteristics.
Apart from space saving advantages and the laboratory-specific benefits like time saving in the supply of materials, the use of safety storage cabinets according to to BS EN 14470 also signifies an immense safety advantage regarding preventive and defensive fire protection. The increasingly flexible design of laboratories and the fast change of applications make a decentralised fire protection concept very desirable. This concept can be quickly adaptable without any complex structural changes and without downgrading safety.
In case of fire, the risk which could arise from the substances stored in the cabinet is almost non existent during the fire resistant time of the cabinet. If the substances are stored properly in this way, there is no need of preferential consideration of the fire accelerating or even the potential of explosion, during the fire-fighting and rescue operations. Thus, the emergency services can primarily concentrate on controlling the fire and rescuing injured persons.
Also from the point of view of insurance a certified safety storage cabinet has positive aspects. The anticipated risk in case of fire is significantly minimised. Therefore the classification according to the EN-standards makes for a far more precise risk assessment.
These safety-related statutory specifications do not exist in all countries. Laboratory staff using single or double walled metal storage cabinets, are exposed to a higher risk, as built and test specifications for these types of cabinet do not fulfil the strict specifications of BS EN 14470 design.
The following illustration demonstrates the comparison between a safety storage cabinet (acc. to BS EN 14470) and a storage room for hazardous materials and flammable liquids designed in accordance with the European standards:
protected against the substances stored in the cabinet. The use of fire-resistant cabinets (Type 90) directly in the workplace drastically reduces the transport time for hazardous materials and gase, reducing associated risks almost to zero.
The ‘insulated’ construction of BS-EN 14470 safety storage cabinet, helps to restrict the damage locally. Safety storage cabinets built to other constructions standards often have no insulation, but instead rely on the sprinkler systems in the rooms they are installed in, to limit the rise in temperatures and spread of fire. In this case the fast control of the fire is contradicted not only by the typical water damage, but also by the potential spreading of hazardous materials by mixing with the fire fighting water. Furthermore, the sprinkler installation is a so called active safety systems, which only reacts in the event of fire. This means that one only knows whether the system is working correctly, in the event of fire.
The European safety storage cabinet excels by its more significant passive safety provided by its fire resistance. This system does not require activation in the event of a fire, as it is permanent.
The equipment of laboratories world-wide with safety storage cabinets in accordance with European safety standards is desirable, not only with regard to personal safety. In case of fire, far less property damage can be expected. This emphasises the practical added value of the cabinets compared to less expensive cabinets which do not comply with the requirements of BS EN 14470.
BS EN 14470 consists of two parts. Part 1 refers to ‘safety storage cabinets for flammable liquids’ and part 2 refers to ‘safety storage cabinets for pressurised gas cylinders’.
The standard was implemented in the course of European harmonisation, aiming to standardise the various safety-regulations in the different countries. The test and construction requirements, for the admission of safety storage cabinets for flammable liquids and cabinets for pressurised gas cylinders, are regulated in this standard and were adopted in all participating member states of the European Union.
The principal safety requirements according to BS EN 14470: • Minimisation of the fire risk associated with the storage of flammable materials.
• Protection of the material stored in the cabinet for a known (tested and approved) period of time in the event of fire.
• Minimisation of the fumes escaping to the working environment. • Retention of any possible leakage within the cabinet.
• Provision of enough time, in the event of fire, for personnel to leave and sufficient time for fire fighters to enter the building before the stored materials turn a small fire into an uncontrollable blaze.
The safest solution for the user is a safety storage cabinet Type 90 (G90 for safety cabinets for pressurised gas cylinders). Type 90 indicates that the safety storage cabinet shields the stored hazardous materials for 90 minutes in the event of fire. Within this time the temperature inside the cabinet must not rise by 180 Kelvin. In gas cylinder cabinets the temperature at the surface of the bottle valve bracket may not exceed 50 Kelvin.
Examples of commonly stored Industrial Solvents Solvent Flash
A fire-resistant safety storage cabinet according to BS EN 14470-1 becomes the “storage room within the laboratory“
This illustration clearly shows that the safety storage cabinet has the same comparable safety- related characteristics as the storage room. According to European standards, the safety storage cabinet thus becomes the ‘storage room within the laboratory’. On the one hand the substances are protected according to the fire resistance duration and on the other hand the laboratory is
Acetone
Ethyl Acetate Ethanol MEK
Hexane
Point (ºC) Minus 18
Minus 4 Plus 14 Minus 3 Minus 23
Autoignition (ºC)
538 426 363 515 284
Boiling
Point (ºC) 56
77 78 80 69
Explosion Limits
2.6 – 13% 2.2-11%
3.3-24.5% 1.8-10.1% 1.2- 7.7%
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