A chemical fume hood protects the user while a biosafety cabinet protects the user, the environment and the material. These cabinets have high efficiency particular air filters while chemical fume hoods do not. In this page we will discuss about the topic named as “can a biosafety cabinet can be used as a fume hood?”
Make sure, fume hoods and biological safety cabinets are not interchangeable because they have different functions and technologies. Basically fume hoods are used to remove chemical fumes away from the work area. On the other hand, biological safety cabinets or BCS are used to provide both the clean work environment and protection for employees who can create aerosols when working with biological hazards. BCS cannot be used for working with volatile chemicals or radioactive materials. But fume hood is rarely found in a clinical laboratory setting.
A chemical fume hood protects the user while the biosafety cabinet protects the user, the environment and the material. Biosafety cabinets have the high efficiency particular air filters while chemical fume hoods or not. A chemical fume hood is designed to remove chemical fumes and aerosols from the work area while a biosafety cabinet is designed to provide both the protection for employees as well as for the cleaning purpose. Basically these are the specialized types of laboratory equipments which have some special appeal of its own and now day’s different technologies are coming in the foreign countries which help to do the work much easier and beneficial as well.
Although these biosafety chemicals and the fume hoods are not interchangeable but there should have some safety security purposes for using these two equipments like-
- To protect these twos, do not install the fume hood directly opposite to the workstations.
- Try to install BSC s to allow access to their supply and exhaust filters for annual certification testing and HEPA filter changes. The top of the cabinet must be at least 18’ below the ceiling to field test exhaust flow according to NSF standard 49.
- To avoid disturbing the airflow that protects the worker, locate fume hoods and BSCs so lab personnel existing and entering the lab do not pass in front of them.
Most biological safety cabinets are not classified under this standard because they are not typically used for large quantities of volatile chemicals. So last but not the least that the biosafety cabinet and the fume hood’s working procedures are totally different and that is why it is not possible to use a biosafety cabinet as a laboratory fume hood. Both these have different procedures to work and have some features of their own. Most of the foreign countries use these materials in their best way. They try their level best for using these materials in a proper way that is why these are not misusing at all. So it is confirmed and proved that biosafety chemicals cannot work as fume hood.
