FEEDBACK Defining non-combustible; and finding guidance on vivaria lighting Defining moment Thanks for the useful articles in the news digest on page 7 of the December issue of the Journal. They underline the need for a very clear denition, or set of denitions, surrounding the terms combustibility, combustible and non-combustible. Clearly, the Oxford English Dictionary denitions are not achievable in practical buildings it would leave us with stone as the only permissible material, as even steel will burn at high enough temperatures. But, equally, there needs to be a more satisfactory denition than the re-resistance grades based on current test standards. They have little signicance for the average HVAC engineer, let alone the public. Some of these grades would not have been adequate to deal with the Grenfell Tower re, even with careful and correct detailing of items such as re stops and re barriers, so the regulation system and the tests it allows must be more specic. Clear denitions of these terms (and tests) would allow much simpler and more easily understood regulations and their dependent parts. Design with reference to adequate tests would not be precluded, and would still give reasonable security and reasonable design freedom. Without clarity, however, the dangers are not lessened and the incompetent and near criminals will cause yet more disasters. For the moment, the argument about sprinklers needs revisiting, but there is an equally valid case for insisting the reresistant properties of a high-rise dwellings contents should be regulated too, to a level that is accurately covered by the appropriate standard re used in the re design. Perhaps we are not yet ready for this! John Moss MCIBSE CIBSE LinkedIn Group discusses guidance for vivaria lighting Where can I nd UK/European published guidance on lighting and lighting controls for scientic vivaria? Neil McLean The Code of Practice for the housing and care of animals bred, supplied or used for scientic purposes, Section 2.2 of the December 2014 document (bit.ly/CJDec19ani2). Bob Bohannon Try arcadiareptile.com which is a specialist in this area. Ian Major A colleague pointed me to Directive 2010/63/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 September 2010 on the protection of animals used for scientic purposes (bit.ly/CJDec19ani). Neil McLean CIBSE Journal welcomes readers letters, opinions, news stories, events listings, and proposals for articles. Please send all material for possible publication to: editor@cibsejournal.com or write to: Alex Smith, editor, CIBSE Journal, CPL, 1 Cambridge Technopark, Newmarket Road, Cambridge CB5 8PB, UK. We reserve the right to edit all letters. CIBSE Jan20 pp17 Letters Patrons.indd 17 SPONSORED FEATURE | CIBSE PATRONS Same issues, new solutions? CIBSE Patrons is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Chair Nick Mead says it is time to nail some perennial issues F our decades of working together to support CIBSE has given Patrons members insight into our sectors biggest challenges many of which never seem to go away. Our 40th anniversary celebration takes place at the end of this month, at Tower Bridge, and will feature business speaker Jay Surti, trustee and Womens Engineering Society (WES) director. Last year, we developed a closer working relationship with WES during its centenary, as part of a campaign to improve our industrys lamentable record on gender diversity. Only about 12% of engineers in the UK are female the lowest proportion in Europe and just 15% of our engineering undergraduates are women, with the number of female engineering and physics students remaining static since 2012. Our industrys workforce does not reect the society it serves in terms of gender, ethnicity, age, disability or most other measures. As a result, we are recruiting from a very narrow slice of the available workforce at a time of acute skills shortage. In an attempt to nally solve this long-running puzzle, we will be supporting the WES campaign to raise the proportion of women in engineering to 30% by 2030. The confused regulatory picture after the General Election, the Hackitt Review, and our imminent departure from the EU will also be in the spotlight during our annual legislation review in February, with CIBSE technical director Hywel Davies. His insights (and warnings) will be more valuable than ever for our membership as we face continued economic uncertainty. As we pointed out during the General Election campaign, it is all very well competing with your political rivals to have the most ambitious carbon-reduction targets, but how do you turn rhetoric into meaningful action? This year will be pivotal if net zero by 2050 is going to be viable. Baroness Brown, vice-chair of the Committee on Climate Change, emphasised that point when she opened CIBSEs Build2Perform event. As host of the annual Patrons House of Lords lunch on 21 April, she will again offer crucial insights into how we can work with the new government to deliver a low carbon future. This is also the date of our rst AGM as a CIBSE Society since our change of status last year. This means Patrons members can now nominate themselves and colleagues to join our committee and elect my successor as chair. To be part of our new era and new approach to old problems, contact cbrown@cibse.org www.cibsejournal.com January 2020 17 20/12/2019 15:09