February 19, 2003—A new risk management strategy for building owners to use in determining their level of risk in regard to extraordinary incidents has been issued by ASHRAE.
The report, Risk Management Guidance for Health, Safety and Environmental Security Under Extraordinary Incidents, addresses health, comfort and environmental security issues involving air, water and food technologies that are within the scope of ASHRAE. Extraordinary incidents are those caused by intentional, accidental or natural events.
The report provides:
- Methods for risk management strategy, which can be used to balance the desired level of exposure against risk for specific buildings and shows how to evaluate their effectiveness. The report notes that owners are responsible for determining their own risk.
- Information on infrastructure support, constraints and vulnerabilities, including support and constraints both outside and inside buildings that can impact the effectiveness of air, water and food processing controls during normal and extraordinary operating conditions.
- Guidance for owners of existing buildings and for designers and owners of new buildings.
“Building occupants have come to expect 100 percent reliability from the infrastructure that serves them,” said James Woods, Ph.D., P.E., chair of the ad hoc committee that prepared the report. “Most are not aware of how vulnerable and interdependent these systems are. This report addresses that vulnerability and suggests measures to reduce the risk of disruptions.”
The report also addresses aspects of building performance that affect health and safety under extraordinary incidents. These include occupant egress, visitor access, building envelopes, entrance paths for contaminants, refuge areas and decontamination zones, chemical, biological and radiological protection, fire protection, smoke removal, air and water filtration, maintenance of air quality, and food and water processes that involve refrigeration within enclosed facilities.
Among the findings and conclusions in the report:
- The health, comfort and productivity of building occupants should not be compromised in the name of reducing building vulnerability to extraordinary incidents.
- If the risk of terrorist attack is judged to be sufficiently high, a greater number of redundant or backup features may be desirable and justifiable.
- Outdoor air intakes should be located so that they are protected from external sources of contamination and away from publicly accessible areas in order to minimize obstructions near the intakes that might conceal a device.
- Integrating the control sequences of HVAC systems for normal and extraordinary periods of operation is a critical design issue.
- Plans and drills for responses to extraordinary incidents are essential to the health and safety of the occupants and the first responders.
The report was written by the Society’s Presidential Ad Hoc Committee for Building Health and Safety Under Extraordinary Incidents, which was appointed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The report is available in PDF format online at ASHRAE.org.
The report is a follow-up to the report released in January 2002 by ASHRAE that has been nationally recognized by the Office of Homeland Security as one of the four most important guidance documents published since Sept. 11, 2001.
