Security Measures Ignore HVAC Systems

By: Aja Whitaker 

The effects of Sept. 11 put tighter security on the agenda of building owners and managers. But concerns don't always focus on protection of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in those buildings. Unprepared office buildings could be at risk with HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration) systems the target, according to industry professionals say.

HVAC systems provide optimum air quality for office buildings - and a window of opportunity for wrongdoers to gain access to unsecured areas of a building, those experts say. "There are things (building owners and managers) can do, but I don't see anyone doing anything right now," said Craig Szenay of Glacier Mechanical Service Inc., an air-conditioning contractor based in Tampa, Fla.Besides Sept. 11, Szenay cited the case of a teen-ager who crashed a small Cessna into a Tampa office building in January as another example of business buildings' vulnerability to attacks.

"No one thought the airplane disaster would ever happen. You really need to have a plan," Szenay said. Chris Prather, senior property manager with Insignia/ESG Inc. for Bank of America Plaza - the Tampa building struck by the airplane - said he acknowledges the possibility of HVAC tampering but thinks most buildings addressed the issue before Sept. 11.
 
However, he said he would heed warnings and suggestions from HVAC experts on ways to be more cautious. "Because of everything that has happened, we are all a little more aware of how the air comes into the building and steps we can take to protect ourselves," said Prather, who also serves as Florida chapter president of the Building Office Managers Association. "It is a concern. But I think in the buildings that I have been associated with, the security of the rooms themselves have been secure for a number of years. Not much has changed since Sept. 11."

Szenay believes HVAC security should be more of a concern for single-story buildings that can be accessed simply by climbing a ladder to the roof. Gaining access to the roof allows admittance to the building through ductwork used by the air-conditioning system. That problem could be addressed by installing burglar bars. But even more than break-ins, the intrusion of unwanted chemicals into fresh-air intake units should also cause alarm among building operators, Szenay said. "If someone sprayed something right next to the unit, the tainted air would be sucked in," he said.

Installing a charcoal filter in the fresh-air intake could prevent that by filtering out the chemicals, he said. The likelihood of introducing chemicals into an HVAC system is doubtful in buildings that already control public access to air handling rooms, said Lonnie Homenuk, executive vice president of Chesapeake Atlantic Holding Inc., which owns several office buildings. "Can something be introduced into the system? Yeah, it can be but it would be difficult to do so," Homenuk said. "They would have to somehow get into the chilled water loop and somehow introduce an agent."

Homenuk, a member of BOMA and the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, said levels of building security for air-flow systems he has seen run the spectrum. In one high-rise building, the air-handling rooms are not necessarily secure if an intruder knows which door to go into. In other buildings, a person cannot go anywhere without signing in at every point of entry, he said.