NFPA 45-2019 PDF Download

The NFPA 45-2019 standard is a comprehensive guide to ensuring fire safety in instructional, educational, and industrial laboratories. The standard establishes requirements for the design and operation of laboratories to prevent injury to occupants. It addresses various aspects of fire protection, including maximum allowable quantities of liquids and gases, laboratory ventilating systems, chemical fume hoods, and the installation of laboratory exhaust ducts through fire-rated barriers.

The 2019 edition of NFPA 45 has been updated to align with other relevant codes such as NFPA 101 and NFPA 30. These updates include revised requirements for exit doors to comply with NFPA 101 egress requirements, aligned terminology related to flame-resistant clothing with NFPA 2112, and clarifications on laboratory exhaust ducts, dampers, and exhaust ducting through fire barriers aligning with NFPA 90A and NFPA 91. The standard also references NFPA 30 for quantities of flammable and combustible liquids, and alignment with NFPA 55 for requirements on gas cylinders.

Other changes in the standard aim to aid designers, installers, facility managers, and AHJs in compliance. These changes include new requirements for laboratory units in health care facilities, clarification on the use of curbing on laboratory floors, the addition of emergency lighting in all laboratory work areas, revised requirements for wet standpipe systems and manual fire alarm systems, expanded provisions for laboratory exhaust systems, and revised inspection and maintenance of fire-extinguishing systems in ductwork or chemical fume hoods.

Additional changes in the standard include a retroactivity clause for operational requirements in existing laboratories, limits on hazardous chemical containers stored and handled in laboratory work areas, specified inspection frequencies for chemical storage, clarified requirements for emergency gas shutoffs and overpressure protection, combined sections on heating operations and equipment, and reinforced evaluation requirements for the effects of mixing wastes.