Annex 5: Criteria for expert laboratory design under consideration of occupational safety and health and environmental protection

Tools for sustainable planning

  • Operation and safety plan
    • Purpose and significance for planning and construction
    • Integrated safety planning
    • Anticipation of future operation
    • Life cycle perspective
    • Documented technical safety
    • Purpose and significance for operation
    • Optimal intrinsic safety
    • Operational scenarios for safe operation
    • Documented safety technology
    • Transition from construction to operation
    • Contribution to the sustainability of laboratory buildings
    • Enhanced adaptability if modifications are needed
    • Hazard-dependent and economical structural safety
    • Scope of the operational and safety plan
    • Part of sustainable laboratory building design
    • Necessary prerequisite for sustainable operation
    • Transparent planning decisions for safety
    • Risk minimisation for planners, operators and users
    • Safety expertise as a professional planning contract
    • Synchronisation: operational and safety planning
  • Continuous improvement process
  • Integration into the planning process
  • Significance for planning
  • Life cycle orientation of the design
  • Communication paths of the safety targets
  • Integral planning and planning team
  • Certification

Basic principles for planning a laboratory building

  • Safety and the protection of health as an integral part of sustainability (definitions, terms, compatibility with ecological and economic targets)
  • Historical development of requirements for laboratory buildings
  • Contents of certification systems and interaction with occupational health and safety
  • Fundamental requirements and application of the DGUV Information 213-850 "Working Safely in Laboratories“ Basic Principles and Guidelines“, in particular section 6
  • For biological laboratories, see also DGUV Information 213-086 "Sichere Biotechnologie – Laboratorien – Ausstattung und organisatorische Maßnahmen"
  • Regulations
    • EU law (EU regulations and directives)
    • German federal rules and regulations (laws, ordinances and technical rules)
    • Rules and regulations of German Social Accident Insurance Institutions (accident prevention regulations (Unfallverhütungsvorschriften), DGUV guidelines, DGUV rules and DGUV information)
    • Standards
  • in particular on the topics
    • Occupational safety and health legislation
    • Workplace legislation
    • Hazardous substances legislation
    • Biological agents and genetic engineering legislation
    • Radiation protection legislation
  • State of the art
    • Terms and definitions
    • Protection strategies laid out in occupational safety and health legislation (Hazardous Substances Ordinance (GefStoffV), Biological Agents Ordinance (BioStoffV), etc.)
  • The laboratory as a work system
  • Interface conditions in the laboratory

Building and structural requirements

  • Typology and parameters of a building (fields: biology, genetic engineering, chemistry, physics, radiochemistry, ...; building grids, floors ...)
  • Functional zoning of spaces
  • Flow of people and materials
  • Building life cycle
  • User requirements

General laboratory profiles

  • Intended purpose
  • Type of use
  • Scientific discipline
  • Activities
  • Working methods
  • Spatial structure
  • Special requirements

Use profiles

  • Room book
  • Compilation criteria
  • Ventilation plan
  • Plan for access arrangements
  • Supply and disposal plans
  • Special areas

Hazards and protective measures

  • Hazards in the laboratory: involvement of users, points in time, documentation and impact on planning
  • “Hard and soft“ risk and stress factors
    • Hazardous substances
    • Biological agents
    • Radioactive substances
    • Genetically modified organisms
    • Radiation
    • Ambient climate
    • Temperature and relative humidity
    • Light and lighting
    • Sound and acoustics
    • .....
  • Protection targets
  • Intrinsic safety concept of the DGUV Information 213-850 “Working Safely in Laboratories – Basic Principles and Guidelines“
  • Risk assessment and evaluation during the planning process
  • Consideration of planning uncertainties
  • Flexibilities of use
  • Development of statutory guidelines
  • Anticipation of future tolerable risk
  • Priorities of protective measures
  • Plans for employing people with disabilities
  • Transfer of responsibility during the planning process

Technical protective measures specific to the building and field

  • Procedure
  • General conditions for working safely
  • Operational and circulation areas
  • Technical Ventilation
  • Electrotechnical safety
  • Technical safety referring to media
  • Equipping the laboratory with regard to safety
  • Safety markings and alarms
  • Emergency Equipment
  • Emergency and escape routes
  • Assessment of effectiveness
  • Fire and explosion protection
    • Physicochemical fundamentals
    • Hierarchy of explosion protection measures
    • Explosion hazards in the laboratory
    • Significance of suction and air exchange rates
    • Ignition sources in the laboratory
    • Explosion protection zones
    • Equipment categories in Ex-protection zones
    • Documentation
  • Containment
  • Ventilation safety devices
  • Measures dependent on the risk factor

Modification options with minimized potential of malfunction and hazards

  • Variability during operation
  • Reaction to new scientific requirements
  • Reaction to regulatory changes that are ineligible for grandfathering

Bill of quantities and planning for approval

  • Contents
  • Statutory guidelines and references
  • Sustainability criteria
  • Normative references

Building process

  • Parties involved in the building process
  • Coordination of the main process owners
  • Service phases according to the Official Scale of Fees for Services by Architects and Engineers (Honorarordnung für Architekten und Ingenieure, HOAI) including those involved in the project
  • Reaction to new scientific requirements
  • Reaction to statutory changes that are ineligible for grandfathering

Building handover

  • Prerequisites for the handover of the building to the owner or operator
  • Documentation requirements
  • Prerequisites for use and operation
  • Delimitation of responsibilities between owner, operator and user
  • Legal aspects of as-built documents

Passage of risk to operators and users

  • Complete building documentation
  • Instructions on maintenance, inspections, operation and care
  • Plan documents and calculated inspection and approval status
  • User/operator manual and introductory training
  • Significance for later statutory responsibilities of operators/users
  • Significance for the positions of planners and clients