Egress requirements

Specific criteria and requirements for means of egress design can be found in local and national building codes as well as in the NFPA 101, Life Safety Code. The Life Safety Code is one of the most widely used standards for means of egress design in the U.S. Means of egress requirements typically entail the following elements ... 

Investigation must be made to establish whether any local regulations or bye-laws apply. In each case, an assessment of risk Is required, taking Into account the nature of the work, access/egress requirements and protection of the area beneath the work area. 

Certain aspects of fire prevention may be regulated by federal or state law, local codes, and institutional regulations. These factors include, but are not limited to, location of sprinkler systems, egress requirements, fire exit drills, placement and testing of fire extinguishers, etc. Some of these rules will have an effeet on the day-to-day laboratory operations, such as any regulations on the use of electrical extension cords, multiple receptacle boxes, or cube tap multiple outlet devices. 

Building and fire codes also mandate egress requirements. Basically, egress requirements... 

In order to provide full protection, fire doors must be maintained properly and must never be blocked open to improve ventilation. See Section 14.3 for additional information on corridors and egress requirements. 

In principle, the nonmining recovery of bitumen from tar sand deposits is an enhanced oil recovery technique and requires the injection of a fluid into the formation through an injection weU. This leads to the in situ displacement of the bitumen from the reservoir and bitumen production at the surface through an egress (production) weU. There are, however, several serious constraints that are particularly important and relate to the bulk properties of the tar sand and the bitumen. In fact, both recovery by fluid injection and the serious constraints on it must be considered in toto in the context of bitumen recovery by nonmining techniques (see PETROLEUM, ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY). 

Worker eomfort areas ean be loeated in site work zones. These eomfort zones allow workers to take breaks and rest without being eontaminated. These areas are designed to maintain the safety of workers and generally require speeial proeedures for ingress and egress, personnel and air monitoring, potable water eonsumption, and restroom use [1],... 

Sometimes in the design of a BSL-4 facility, the full letter of health and safety codes/requirements for the protection of workers can not be met. This is where health and safety specialists must compromise and use their ingenuity to meet the intent of the requirements. For example, it is not always possible to provide a secondary means of egress from each area. Two change facilities are not cost effective or practical. A viable alternative is the use of airlocks with built-in liquid disinfection systems which are not hazardous to humans, but destroy the biohazard. These airlocks must be clearly identified as others are often used for transportation of equipment and other materials and contain hazardous disinfection systems. 

At the egress (discharge) end of the pipeline, provisions should be made to handle the fluid and product being emitted. Explosive products that are insoluble in the hydraulic fluid being used can be discharged into a sump where they can be removed later and destroyed, or through a fine mesh screen that will retain the explosive products for later disposition. Soluble products will require collection and disposition of both the product and the hydraulic fluid. 

Exit routes and doors from all facilities should be provided according to the requirements of NFPA 101. The minimum width of all exit routes should not be less than a standardized width, 1.0 meter (39 inches) being commonly adopted. Where low occupancy rooms are provided in offshore facilities near process areas, a secondary emergency escape hatch is provided as an alternative means of escape in addition to the normal means of egress. 

Elevated process structures require particular attention to egress to permit personnel to escape safely and quickly in an emergency. Some important definitions are ... 

In general, at least two means of egress are required from every level, story, or section of a process structure. There are limited exceptions allowing a single means of egress for certain structures, defined as low hazard and for small areas, as follows ... 

The required two means of egress from each level should be separated from each other as much as possible. Based on the maximum overall diagonal... 

For enclosed process structures, any inside stairs that serve as an exit or exit component require enclosure to provide personnel protection from smoke and fire during emergency egress. The stair enclosures serving as an exit way must have the following fire-resistive construction ... 

Egress models generally require a detailed plan of the layout or area considered. Additionally, the occupant load, the type of occupants, and the smoke conditions are input requirements. The models can be used to predict the egress time from the floor or deck level, stair egress time, congestion locations. 

Unit equipment (self-contained battery packs with integral or remote lamps) provide the lowest initial cost for emergency egress lighting and exit signs but require considerable maintenance. 

---