Page 32 - Occupational Health & Safety, January/February 2019

EMERGENCY SHOWERS & EYEWASH
Meeting the Requirements for Emergency Equipment
Employees must be trained to hold their eyes open during the flushing process. All employees also should be trained on how to use the emergency equipment fixtures before they handle hazardous chemicals.
BY JERRY LAWS
For companies maintaining or considering emergency shower and eyewash stations, there are two key standards to remember. The ANSI/ISEA Z358.1-2014 American National
Standard for Emergency Eyewash and Shower Equip- ment is an essential resource—visit ISEA’s www.safe- tyequipment.org website to order it. This important consensus standard outlines the minimum equipment performance criteria for this equipment. It specifies flow rates, water temperature delivery, testing, and much more.
Z358.1 is the leading international standard for implementation of eyewash and shower equipment. On the standard’s page on its website, ISEA points out what a wide range of industries need to install and maintain this emergency equipment, listing “manu- facturing and processing facilities, construction sites, laboratories, medical and healthcare offices, refineries and other workplaces.”
The other key standard is OSHA’s first aid stan- dard, the one that explains the requirement for certain facilities in those and other industries to install show- er or eyewash equipment. OSHA’s 29 CFR 1910.151(c) says, “Where the eyes or body of any person may be exposed to injurious corrosive materials, suitable fa- cilities for quick drenching or flushing of the eyes and body shall be provided within the work area for im- mediate emergency use.”
A wide range of industries need to install and maintain this emergency equipment, including processing fa- cilities, construction sites, laboratories, health care offices, chemical plants, and refineries.
End users frequently ask what constitutes “im- mediate use.” Fortunately, ANSI/ISEA Z358.1-2014 answers this question: It specifies that showers and eyewashes should be located within 10 seconds’ travel distance from a hazard. As Speakman Company’s Imants Stiebris explained in an article in the July 2018 issue of this magazine, “While in existing facilities it is fairly easy to measure 10 seconds with a stopwatch, engineers and architects who are designing facilities do not have this luxury; all that they have to work with are blueprints. To help these design professionals, the Z358.1 Standard suggests that 55 feet is a distance that most persons can travel in 10 seconds or less. The vic- tim’s physical condition and potential obstacles must still be taken into consideration.”
The shower and eyewash unit should be on the same level as the hazard requiring their use, in order to eliminate trips and the need for the affected worker to climb up or down. The unit should be installed in a well-lit area and identified with a sign; if shut-off valves are installed in the supply line for maintenance purposes, the employer should prevent unauthorized shut-off of the water supply.
The Z358.1-2014 standard also directs that the wa- ter temperature delivered to this equipment be “tepid,” which is defined as being between 60 degrees and 100 degrees Fahrenheit, so that the affected worker will be able to withstand the continuous flow for 15 minutes without the risk of scalding or hypothermia.
Employee Training and Equipment Testing
Shower and eyewash companies say there are six in- terrelated areas for managers of employers’ eyewash and shower programs to get right: performance, use, installation, testing, maintenance, and training.
Employees must be trained to hold their eyes open during the flushing process. All employees also should be trained on how to use the emergency equipment fixtures before they handle hazardous chemicals.
26 Occupational Health & Safety | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019
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