Assessing the requirements for emergency safety showers/eye wash stations on your worksite

In this article, we will take a look at some important questions that safety officers need to consider when assessing their need for emergency safety showers and/or eye wash stations on their worksite.

Conduct a risk assessment—are there hazardous substances on your worksite?

When conducting a risk assessment to establish whether or not your worksite requires the presence of emergency safety showers and/or eye wash equipment, you should pose the question: Are there hazardous substances in use? Do they pose a risk to the eyes and/or skin? If so, they will require immediate rinsing, and you should have appropriate eye wash and decontamination showers present on site.

Safety officers should consult safety data sheets for the chemicals and other substances used in their worksite(s), which will assist them in determining the level of protection needed.

Make sure that the emergency safety shower/eye wash station is appropriate for the risk in question

Safety officers should refer to the technical spec for safety showers in order to ensure that they are appropriate for the risks in question. They should also bear in mind environmental factors, for instance, is the worksite prone to low temperatures? In such cases, a heated or jacketed safety shower unit may be required.

Is your worksite fixed or transient?

When assessing which decontamination shower is best suited for your worksite(s), the nature of the site itself should be borne in mind. In permanent locations such as laboratories or chemical plants, a fixed safety shower is generally best. However, in more transient work environments, such as construction sites, a mobile unit will, naturally, be more practical.

For further information on assessing your safety shower and PPE requirements, please feel free to get in touch with our experienced team on 0402 32116 or email sales@mahealy.ie. We have been supplying safety showers, eye wash stations, and all sorts of PPE to businesses across Ireland for decades and are a trusted distributor for Hughes Safety in the Republic of Ireland.