Safety
Tidbit 3.25 – Flushing of Eyewashes
Reference: OSHA Factsheet on Eyewashes
What do you do when something splashes into your eyes at
work? SCREAM! Well, hopefully, you go to
the eyewash, and a fellow worker is there to help you flush out your eyes (or
better yet, your fellow worker enables you to get to the eyewash. I have written a few Safety Tidbits about
eyewashes specifically about the flow rate, distance to an eyewash (10-second
rule), and having temperate water.
This week I saw two occurrences where the plumbed in
eyewashes were covered with dust and looked horrible. I asked when the last
time they had been flushed the representatives had no idea. I explained that
the good the bad and the ugly of what might be lurking in their eyewash.
Water found in improperly maintained eyewash stations is
more likely to contain organisms (e.g., Acanthamoeba, Pseudomonas, Legionella)
that thrive in stagnant or untreated water and are known to cause infections.
When a worker uses an improperly maintained eyewash station, organisms in the
water may come into contact with the eye, skin, or inhaled.
Eyewash station manufacturer instructions provide direction
on how often and how long to activate specific plumbed systems to reduce microbial
contamination and reference the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
standard Z358.1-2014. Employers should consult the manufacturer’s instructions
for the required maintenance procedures of self-contained eyewash units.
Maintenance includes flushing the system and using only solutions appropriate
for flushing eyes.
Ultimately, after I talked to the safety representative and
a few of the workers about the good, the bad and the ugly of contaminated
eyewashes, they walked directly over to the eyewashes and turned them on. I
guess they understood.
Hope
this was helpful and thanks for reading my Safety Tidbits! Comments and
questions are always welcome. ~
Bryan
P.S. If you have an interesting
safety or health question please let me know.
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