Every second counts

ACCIDENTS CAN and do happen - that’s a fact. Wherever there is a hazard, such as chemicals, toxic substances, solvents or dust, there is a risk of injury no matter how strictly a company adheres to stringent health & safety measures. And safety equipment isn’t just about whopping great safety tank showers. 

Todays’ emergency decontamination solutions come in various forms and sizes for all types of working environments. So there is actually no excuse for being unable to source the right solution. 

Temperature matters

It is no longer an option to give your workforce cold water safety showers direct from the mains as this will undoubtedly exacerbate injuries causing further unnecessary harm and pain. Supplying tepid water is vital and if your safety showers don’t meet industry standards you may be setting a dangerous trap for your workers and a costly liability bill for your company. Tepid is defined to be between 60°F (16°C) and 100°F (38°C). Many COSHH sheets state the requirement for a casualty to remain under a shower for at least 15 minutes to be washed off satisfactorily. The necessity to therefore provide 15 minutes or more of tepid water is absolutely vital as getting doused in cold water can not only cause thermal shock it will actually close the pores thus trapping the contaminants in the skin.

The delivery of tepid water can raise complicated engineering issues. Difficulties such as water access/storage, available space, the costs of heating large volumes of water, the cost of installing and running inline instantaneous water heaters and the environment in which a safety shower will be sited are all points to be considered so that the most effective piece of equipment can be specified.

Maintain equipment

When 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 safety showers in accordance with the relevant standards ANSI Z358.1-2014 and BS EN ISO 41001:2018 covering key points, for example shower flow rates, water temperatures location and expectations of the organisation and its workers. 

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. Emergency de-contamination facilities are there for the accidents that employers hope will never happen. What looks to be a low risk environment can give rise to the unexpected – whether by something unpredictable such as grit blown into the eyes by strong winds, a sudden substance splash or simply by a lack of care and attention to safety by staff. 

The right product

The first few minutes immediately after an accident can be vital for reducing the level of injury. Any contaminants in the eyes or on the skin require swift and immediate removal, and being able to take a skin or face wash straight to the victim, rather than waiting for an ambulance to arrive, is critical. 

There are all sorts of considerations you need to take into account when choosing the right decontamination solution for your business. It doesn’t have to be expensive, since much of the equipment needed can be portable, moved quickly from one area of the workplace to another, and is designed to be extremely low maintenance. It’s worth taking the time to get the right product for the task.

The location should be no more than a maximum of 10 seconds travel time for an injured person to access as every second counts. Therefore, there should be nothing to obstruct the pathways leading up to an emergency shower or items stored on top of an eyewash sink. Ensure that the pathway is well lit and all directional signage is still in place and clearly visible.

If you have a working environment where there is a possibility of getting covered with a substantial amount of contaminant, then you will need a safety shower facility that can be a simple pipe shower, plumbed into the mains. However, where the spillage is likely to be small, you would probably just need a smaller solution for washing out eyes or a small patch of skin. 

Having easy, fast access to an eye wash can be a problem if the environment in which you are in does not allow for a permanent, plumbed in piece of kit. 

For this, a facility such as a self-contained Eye wash, which can be quickly and easily carried into action as soon as required, should be considered. Look at units that can be wheeled by cart or trolley to where it is needed and has a hand-held flexible hose to provide a full body wash.

A portable shower can take just 60 seconds to be ready for use and fold down to the size of a small case. Storage of the shower in small workplaces becomes easy and cost effective. However, when you choose your safety shower unit, think practically. If you have a free standing shower facility that dumps a whole load of water straight onto a floor where others are working, you could end up with more injuries. A unit that can contain the water would therefore be necessary. 

For larger construction sites where the workforce, more often than not, is on the move a mobile bowser safety shower is very popular. Providing up to 2000 litres of water, these units guarantee to provide up to 15 minutes of tepid water drench time and can operate in non-hazardous external environments in temperatures of -5 degrees up to +40 degrees centigrade. Basically, these go where the work goes so are ideal for construction sites for example.

In certain workplaces it may be critical that the ground or surface can be rinsed quickly. A retractable hose reel will enable you to wash either the victim or the ground, or even both. Lightweight, and with a fully automatic rewind, the hose reel is easy to install and virtually maintenance free. It can be housed in a cabinet with heater to protect the hose reel from freezing if installed outside.

As a guide, here are a few points to consider when weighing up what facility, or facilities, you may need:

• Identify the hazard and the seriousness of the risk

• Will you need a safety shower facility or just an eye wash?

• What is the size of the workplace, and how many workers are employed?

• Do people tend to move around a lot? If so, portability will be important.

• Can the water drain into the ground or will it need to be contained?

• Will the water supply be uninterrupted or intermittent? This is an important consideration to determine the most suitable type of shower.

• What are the physical constraints i.e. how much space do you have on which to attach or store a unit, and could it be obstructed at any time?

• And most importantly, operatives need to be fully briefed on the potential danger of the hazards within which they are working, they also need to be trained on how to operate the shower including key items that should be checked routinely that might prevent correct operation. 

Janet Waine is managing director of Aqua Safety Showers International. For more information, visit www.safetyshowersinternational.com