The 2018 edition of NFPA 99 has several changes and additions that medical gas system installers, designers and hospital facilities personnel should be aware of. One of the requirements added to this edition is a filter on the source end of the vacuum system. There is a significant debate in the U.S. about whether pathogens can survive in a vacuum pipeline. The prevailing argument up to this point has been that the antibiotic properties of copper, along with the vacuum atmosphere, made it impossible. However, many other countries have decided it is not worth the risk, considering the possibility that these dangerous pathogens could not only be pulled through the pipeline and into the vacuum pump itself, but out the exhaust and into the outside atmosphere as well. These countries have been requiring a filter to prevent this for some time now. The U.S. has come on board with this requirement as of 2018.
Below is a short clip from our online ASSE Medical Gas Certification Renewal program.