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Comparing the 1985 Life Safety Code with the 2000 version

Ambulatory Safety Monitor, March 12, 2003

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Health care facilities that replace the 1985 edition of the Life Safety Code (LSC) in favor of the 2000 version should know about these major differences:

• The 2000 LSC requires automatic sprinklers to protect all new health care facilities. The 1985 Code didn't mandate them because it relied on building compartments to ensure life safety instead. Facilities with quick-response sprinklers get considerations from the 2000 Code in other areas.
• The 1985 Code doesn't have the exception for smoke dampers in duct penetrations of some smoke barriers based on the use of quick-response sprinklers (exception 2 to 19.3.7.3 in the 2000 LSC).
• The 1985 version automatically considers employee locker rooms as hazardous areas, while the more recent editions of the LSC generally don't (see 18/19-3.2 in the 2000 LSC).
• The 2000 LSC permits kickplates on certain doors.
• The 2000 Code allows corridor doors to have an undercut clearance of no more than 1 in, as opposed to prior requirements for a 3/4-in maximum (see 18/19.3.6.3.1).
• The two versions reference different editions of other important standards, such as NFPA 13, Installation of Sprinkler Systems, and NFPA 99, Health Care Facilities.
• The 2000 LSC updated exceptions for areas open to the corridor that the 1985 version doesn't contain.
• The 2000 LSC offers more flexibility in the geometry of the smoke compartment.
• The 1985 version restricted delayed egress locks to exterior doors only; now, facilities can use these locks anywhere as long as there's not more than one such lock in any one egress path.
  
  
  

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