so Dr. J are you saying on a vet hospital that if there is a medical gas system that NFPA 99 does not apply??? even though IFC says shall comply with NFPA 99??
Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. You ARE complying with NFPA 99 by reading the scoping statement, noting that there are no requirements for non-human animals and moving on. In fact, medical gasses designed in accordance with NFPA 99 are
prohibited from being used for non-(human) medical uses. If you use a NFPA 99 Patient Medical Gas system on animals (or raising/lowering booms, blowing out endoscopes, lab research, etc) you would be in violation of NFPA 99.
More NFPA 99 excerpts:
(from the "origin and development" section, stating one of the modifications over the years): (
4) Revising Section 1-1 to reflect the intent that NFPA 99 applies only to facilities treating human beings
(from the definitions):
3.3.143 Patient Medical Gas. Piped gases such as oxygen, nitrous oxide, helium, carbon dioxide, and medical air that are used in the application of human respiration and the calibration of medical devices used for human respiration.
Humans occupy vet clinics. They may not be treated there but they are still there and life safety for them is still a factor, right?
The owner of the animal may not be getting gassed, but may very well be in the same room as his pet not to mention the human vet doing the gassing.
Nothing in NFPA 99 addresses the visitor or doc in a patient room where the patient is getting gassed. Like I said above, the IFC does include storage provisions, and therefore the life safety of the human occupants is indeed addressed.
It would be ridiculous for a code to require emergency power, highly redundant equipment, super clean piping, multiple alarms, zone valves, etc for non-human animals. These requirements are meant for maintaining life support for people.