Safety in the Plant
Safety showers: are yours fit for purpose?
Ensuring that emergency showers and eyebaths are fit for purpose and ready to withstand a winter freeze is essential. Janet Dickinson explains.
Notduschen und Augenbäder müssen zweckmäßig und im Winter frostsicher sein. Janet Dickinson erklärt weshalb.
Il est essentiel de s’assurer que les douches de sécurité et les bains oculaires sont adaptés à leur usage et prêts à résister au gel en hiver, explique Janet Dickinson.
W
hen it comes to the safety of personnel, just installing a piece of safety equipment is not enough. Testing for uninterrupted
operation and functionality of both internal and external safety showers is vital. Not doing so can put workers lives in danger. These critical pieces of health and safety equipment very often slip through the regular maintenance duties on site. During periods of cold weather this can leave the equipment non-operable and liable to long-term damage. A planned winterisation programme that includes annual servicing will prevent downtime and costly repair bills and will also provide peace of mind that the showers and eyebaths will operate perfectly when needed. Such a plan should include a full report that records the operation of showers in accordance with the relevant standards ANSI Z358.1-2009 and BS EN 151543 covering key points, for example shower flow rates, water temperatures and location. There is a requirement to ensure that
safety eyewashes and showers supply clean, potable water and are in proper working order. So you need to ensure that the water flow is continuous; evaluate that the unit can maintain flow for 15 minutes, and is not injurious to the user’s eye or face. Valve actuators must activate water flow in one second or less and controlled flow of flushing fluid must be provided to both eyes simultaneously. With the changing climate, exposed pipe
work that would have normally survived the UK winter is no longer adequate and will not meet the recommended standards. This will mean either re-siting the shower unit or freeze protecting the pipework. In house inspection programmes should
necessitate updating your risk assessments. This should include assessing not only against the control of substances hazardous to health (COSHH) but also against climatic conditions, the surrounding environment and the workforce including lone workers and the mix of male/female operatives for example. If processes and site layouts change operationally you need to carefully reconsider the type of decontamination solution that meets the needs of the workers and environment in which they work. To make sure casualties can use the
shower for the recommended 15 minutes minimum (to ensure chemicals are thoroughly washed off) the water must be of a tepid temperature as cold water directly from the mains will cause casualties to stop using the shower too soon due to thermal shock. And talking about your operatives,
Fig. 1. A tank shower must work first time, every time.
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hopefully they have never had to use the safety shower but can they remember where the emergency facilities are located? For example, if working near hazardous substances, it can be time critical that they are aware that a facility is available in the direct vicinity rather than having to get to a main building that could be driving distance away. This also reduces any further spread of the contamination.
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