Protecting Families: How Pipes Can Make or Break a Building

November 2021
Sponsored by Safe Piping Coalition

Presented by Paul Hagar, Industry Director

Continuing Education

Use the following learning objectives to focus your study while reading this month’s Continuing Education article.

Learning Objectives - After reading this article, you will be able to:

  1. Describe the relationship between individual buildings and the wider ‎landscape of piping infrastructure.‎
  2. Explain how emerging challenges make resiliency a key requirement for ‎multifamily piping systems. ‎
  3. List 4 ways that widely used materials impact the health of building ‎occupants, the community, and the environment.‎
  4. ‎Identify key building codes and their implications for specification of piping ‎systems in multifamily construction, giving examples that illustrate how ‎piping should be considered to ensure safety, resilience, and sustainability.‎

Millions of piping systems bring clean water to children, parents and the elderly in ‎urban and suburban buildings and residential communities throughout North ‎America. They also carry away sewage and other waste, among other essential ‎functions. Water and drain/waste/vent piping infrastructure must safeguard ‎human health and safety, while also addressing sustainability and environmental ‎concerns. Recent piping crises such as lead poisonings in Flint, Michigan, and ‎benzene contamination in Santa Rosa, California, demonstrate that not all piping ‎systems are created equal. This session will discuss the importance of piping ‎infrastructure, review emerging challenges, reveal how piping impacts health and ‎safety, and show examples in code and practice.

piping

Photo courtesy of Safe Piping Coalition


paul_head

Paul Hagar has worked in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry for more than 20 years, including consulting with the piping industry, working on codes and standards, marketing and sales of residential and commercial products, and collaborating with architecture and interior design firms. He is passionate about finding practical and effective solutions for environmental challenges that benefit both people and planet.