Page 100 - Occupational Health & Safety, July 2018

EMERGENCY SHOWERS & EYEWASH
Prime Drivers for Emergency Showers & Eyewashes
While showers and eyewashes can’t prevent exposure to hazardous materials, they can certainly minimize the effects when exposure to injurious corrosive materials happens.
BY IMANTS STIEBRIS
94 Occupational Health & Safety | JULY 2018
www.ohsonline.com
In the plumbing world, emergency showers & eyewashes hold a unique position among the fit- tings and fixtures that you use daily. While many plumbing products are purchased for personal
pleasure, a great shower, a functional toilet, or a sharp- looking faucet, emergency showers & eyewashes are used by employers to save eyes and lives. Further- more, they are required by law! Failure by an end user to use these emergency products in certain situations can result not only in warnings and fines, but also in eye damage and chemical burns.
The primary driver for employers to provide showers & eyewashes is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA. OSHA’s overall mission is to “assure safe and healthful working con- ditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, out- reach, education and assistance.”
Among the many areas of safety that OSHA covers, there is a section that specifically references the need for emergency shower & eyewash products: OSHA 29 CFR 1910.151 (c). In this section, OSHA requires the following of employers: “Where the eyes or body of any person may be exposed to injurious corrosive materials, suitable facilities for quick drenching or flushing of the eyes and body shall be provided with- in the work area for immediate emergency use.”
This brief paragraph, which is buried inside the
OSHA First Aid section, is the primary driver for em- ployers to provide emergency showers and eyewashes in their facilities. It is not industry specific and covers all employees working with injurious corrosive materi- als. This includes employees as diverse as those work- ing in food service with oven cleaners or disinfectants, to mechanics maintaining automotive batteries, to in- dustrial workers using sulfuric and nitric acid.
While showers and eyewashes are not specifically referenced in the OSHA law, the intent is clear, and OSHA inspectors are constantly on the lookout to make sure that where hazardous materials are being used, there are proper drenching (drench showers) or flushing devices (eyewashes) available for employees to use. This is evidenced by the fact that in the past several years, inadequate “Eye and Body Flushing Fa- cilities” has landed on the OSHA “Most Frequently Cited Serious Violations in General Industry” list.
If OSHA’s focus on this area is not incentive enough to comply with this important safety require- ment, then perhaps a few statistics will encourage compliance. OSHA has indicated that on average, more than 1,000 eye injuries occur in American work- places every day and the financial burden of these injuries is costly—more than $300,000 per injury in lost production time, medical expenses, and work- ers’ compensation. While not all are due to chemical burns, the National Institute for Occupational Safety
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