As the current chair of the ANSI-AIHA Z9.5 subcommittee, I am hoping to use this forum to counter some erroneous information that has been circulating about the forthcoming standard. Whether the information was outright or egregiously misleading or just audience misinterpretation doesn't really matter.

I received a report recently about "an especially large group (of interested parties) at the Labs 21 conference...and hearing people talking about "the new ANSI flow level" as though we had erased one number and wrotein another." For the record, I feel obliged to add something to the vacuumcreated by the slow consensus publishing process.

I do regret that the revised standard hasn't been published yet. As we all know, (information) vacuums get filled. It wouldhave been a lot easier to control what filled this particular vacuum if weall could be reading and interpreting the same text. Unfortunately, publication appears to be out a few more months.

 

In the mean time, if you hear someone mention the "new ANSIminimum hood flow rate," politely correct them and assure them that in some cases, applying the revised standard could in fact raise the minimum (from 25 cfm/ft2). It will be fair to say as well that environmental performance and sustainability IS not entirely outside the scope of this standard anymore. The subcommittee hopes that where appropriate, an equally safe but smaller carbon footprint may now be possible so long as safety isn't compromised.