Acid and flammable storage cabinets should meet OSHA, NFPA, and UFC requirements. Also these cabinets should be UL labeled. However, it has been my experience that when these cabinets are fire tested, they aren’t ventilated; the cabinet doors are closed and the cap is on the flame arrestor vent. Each manufacturer is slightly different and inquiries must be made about the fire tests preformed to determine if it had been tested with a vent connection or not. Making a hard vent connection may make your insurance coverage null and void.

Industrial Hygienists would prefer that these cabinets were ventilated for one reason: a non-ventilated cabinet allows for the buildup of odor within the cabinet when the lab occupant opens the cabinet, pulling the door toward him or her; the odor rolls out and into the breathing space on the lab occupant. Having the cabinet ventilated means the cabinet is under a negative pressure, preventing the escape of odor into occupied space.

Some fume hood vendors do offer a vent connection from the storage cabinets under the fume hood up into the fume hood work area behind the baffles. However, some local codes prohibit this due to the notion that if a fire were to occur it would probably be in the fume hood and the vent exhaust would just feed the fire. Again, check all the codes and labels on the cabinets.

From: Safety First by Ken Mohr