Is Half Safe Enough?

My father used to have a faithful saying for my brother and I when we thought we "completed" what he asked us to do – “half-ass”. So, is “half safe” enough. You would be surprised how often we tell ourselves that it is. As I travel around to different types of facilities; quite often I find organizations that handle chemicals in part of the process. The process requires them to have an emergency shower and eyewash. Often the organizations tell me their emergency shower is down the hall, third door on the left, in their employee restroom. They count an ordinary stand up shower as emergency decontamination. There are some uncomfortable flaws to this thinking when it comes to someone that’s been exposed to hazardous substances and needs this flesh destroying chemical off immediately. The following are some of my thoughts when considering having emergency shower accessible after an incident.

The first 10 to 15 seconds after exposure to a hazardous substance, especially a corrosive substance, are critical. Delaying treatment, even for a few seconds, may cause serious injury.

Emergency showers and eyewash stations provide an on-the-spot decontamination. They allow workers to flush away hazardous substances that can cause injury. Accidental chemical exposures can still occur even with good engineering controls and safety precautions. As result, it is essential to look beyond the use of goggles, face shields, and procedures for using personal protective equipment. Emergency showers and eyewash stations are necessary backup to minimize the effects of action exposures to chemicals.

Emergency showers can also be used effectively to extinguish clothing fires, or for flushing contaminants off clothing.

However, employers use of ordinary shower stalls does not quite hit the standard. The typical household showerhead has 2.5 gallons per minute flowing through it. If you review the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard Z358.1 – 2014, “emergency eyewash and shower equipment” as a guide; you quickly find that 2.5 gallons per minute is not adequate. It isn’t even halfway there. The emergency shower should deliver a pattern of water with a diameter of at least 20 inches at 5 feet of height. This diameter ensures the water will come in contact with the entire body. Not just the top of the person’s head. ANSI also recommends the showerhead to be between 82 and 96 inches from the floor. The minimum volume of spray should be 20 gallons per minute for minimum time of 15 minutes. Additionally, the shower should be designed so that it can be activated in less than one second, and it remains operational without the operator’s hand on the valve. This valve should not be more than 69 inches in height.

As you see some of the solutions that we tell ourselves we have are only halfway there. If somebody’s doused with corrosive chemicals; they have 10 to 15 seconds to find their way to a shower to start washing the chemicals off. This becomes complicated when the path leaves the production area, goes down a hall, through doorways and into a bathroom. Additionally, two and half gallons of water a minute to the top of the head is not helping the person get those dangerous chemicals off the rest of their body. Please take this information back to your company and review what exposures you have out there. I would hope that you never have to use emergency shower, but if you do you want to make sure you have the right equipment to get the job done properly.

Remember, love one another.

Take care.