Safety showers are a must for any workplace that handles corrosive chemicals or other harmful substances. Because even with the best safety protocols in place accidents can—and will—happen. Meaning shower and eye/face wash equipment become a critical step before seeking medical attention.

So, naturally, the location of the shower equipment matters. For it to be most effective, a shower or eye wash station needs to be easy to access. Since in the case of an emergency, every second counts. But what else should facilities consider when identifying the best location for a safety shower?

In this post, we look at factors influencing where emergency showers should be located. Including shower requirements and regulations for this important safety equipment.

What is the Purpose of an Emergency Safety Shower?

Safety showers are designed to flush harmful materials from a person’s skin, eye area, or clothes. Used correctly, emergency eyewash and shower equipment helps people avoid serious injury.

A worker might use a shower or eyewash unit following a chemical exposure incident. For example, if an acid or other dangerous contaminant accidentally splashes them. The shower’s continuous flow of flushing fluid provides decontamination and first aid. By preventing a chemical burn on the area that contacted the hazardous material.

In a nutshell, emergency showers play an essential role in employee health & safety. They are also a requirement for many industries per the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Specifically, 29 CFR 1910.151 for Medical Services and First Aid states:

“Where the eyes or body of any person may be exposed to injurious corrosive materials, suitable facilities for quick drenching or flushing of the eyes and body shall be provided within the work area for immediate emergency use.”

Which Workplaces Need Safety Showers?

Under the OSHA regulation above, shower equipment is necessary for many types of facilities. They are commonly found in factories, warehouses, laboratories, schools, and hospitals. Which are often work environments already using other worker safety and protection measures: think gloves, safety glasses, and other personal protective equipment (PPE).

A risk analysis can assess the potential hazards of a work area or job role. This helps decide if a shower, or its type, is a necessity or not. One way to identify associated risks with materials used on site is by reading their safety data sheets (SDS). For instance, understanding if chemicals are caustic to the skin therefore posing potential harm to the entire body. Or, are a more localized hazard, like vapor emissions that may irritate the eyes.

Then, the equipment selection needs to appropriately match the hazard. This may mean installing a shower, eye and face wash station, or both. In fact, some shower stations are available as a combination unit. With the shower accompanied by an eyewash or drench hose.

But, it’s important to use the appropriate equipment to treat different areas of the body. Especially, when it comes to eye/face wash units. That’s because eyewash nozzles provide a more gentle water flow than a drench or shower head. Which avoids additional damage to the delicate eye area while rinsing away a corrosive chemical.

Where Are Safety Showers Installed?

Whether it’s a manufacturing plant or a chemical laboratory, no two workplaces are exactly alike. Therefore, each type of facility will have its own set of needs when it comes to emergency safety showers. Including different types of eyewash or shower activation designs, and their location.

Safety showers can be permanent and plumbed indoors or outside. Or, even portable units with a potable water supply—particularly for outdoor or remote job sites. Shower heads may be installed from the wall or ceiling. As well as freestanding floor models, cubicles, and mobile tank units.

Similarly, eyewash units can be plumbed to a wall, or, inset on lab workbenches. Portable eye/face wash equipment can be gravity-fed or use a pressurized tank.

While OSHA directs the use of workplace safety showers, it doesn’t cover location and installation specifications. That guidance falls to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA). Under the ANSI/ISEA Z358.1 Emergency Eyewash and Shower Equipment standard. Which details everything from specific installment measurements, distance from obstructions, and more.

Example Locations for Safety Showers and Eyewash Stations

• A ceiling mount drench shower next to an industrial facility’s battery charging station.
• Workbench mount eyewash in a laboratory facility that handles chemicals.
• Outdoor portable tank shower cubicle for workers undertaking chemical spraying operations.
• Eye/face wash station in manufacturing sites where grinding, sanding, or machining operations cause debris and dust.
• Combination shower and eye/face wash units in factories with hazardous substance dispensing areas.

Considerations for the Best Safety Shower Placement

Referencing ANSI standards, as well as common sense, here are some important factors when it comes to the location of your workplace emergency shower.

Distance from Possible Hazards

The further away shower stations are from potential accident sites, the greater the risk of serious damage increases. Particularly if a person has impaired vision due to hazard exposure.

Therefore, emergency showers and eyewash stations should be no more than 10 seconds away from a potential hazard. This translates to around 55 feet. But may need to be closer in the case of more harmful chemicals, like a corrosive acid.

It’s equally important that emergency eyewash or shower facilities be on the same level as the potential hazard. So they should not be on a higher or lower floor level that requires using stairs or ramps.

Position from Nearest Obstructions

Wash stations must have a completely clear pathway to access them. Meaning it must be free from any obstacle that could get in the way. For example, workers should not have to pass through doorways or navigate around equipment or partitions to reach one.

This requirement also applies to the unit’s installation site. Eyewashes should be a minimum of 6 inches away from a wall. While enclosed showers must have an unobstructed area of 34 inches in diameter.

Supply of Tepid Water Temperature

An emergency shower should provide tepid water for a rinsing time of at least 15 minutes. ANSI defines tepid as being a temperature between 60-100°F. Thereby avoiding additional risks of hypothermia, shock, or burns while a person flushes an affected area.

Portable or outdoor units can sometimes present challenges with maintaining water temperature. So, heating elements or insulation may be necessary for exterior pipework or potable water sources. Likewise, indoor showers may also require a tempering or temperature control valve.

Sightlines and Visible Signs

Eyewash and shower stations need to be highly visible so workers can see them from every direction. Hence, wall or floor signage must clearly identifiable with easily recognizable symbols and words. 

The location of the shower and its signage also needs to be well lit. Otherwise, getting to a safety eyewash or shower may be difficult for a person with chemical residue in their eyes that impairs their vision.

Isolation and Privacy

Depending on the circumstance, it is often necessary to remove clothing when a person uses an emergency shower. This is because chemical contaminants are likely to stay trapped in clothing, increasing the risk of harm. Optional shower modesty curtains are one way to help preserve a user’s privacy.

Sometimes sites may have minimal workers present in one hazard area. So, installing an audible or visual warning alarm is another safety precaution. This system can alert others when a shower is activated, so they can respond accordingly with aid.

Additionally, consider locating showers nearby to an emergency exit. This helps emergency responders more quickly reach and provide medical attention to a shower user.

Quantity and Type

Some workplaces keep large volumes of hazardous chemicals on-site, with many workers performing related handling tasks. This means one single incident can affect multiple people who need to use an eyewash or safety shower station at the same time. 

Therefore, the number of safety showers, eyewash stations, or combination units should be subject to the number of workers your facility employs. Or, how many could get affected by a hazardous chemical accident at one time.

Different configurations of equipment may also be necessary. With separate stations for an eyewash, shower, and drench hose.

Optimal Operating Function

Regularly checking safety showers and eyewash stations is another important process. ANSI advises inspecting shower safety equipment every single week. Including an activation test for plumbed units. This is to ensure flushing fluid is available and the shower nozzles operate as expected.

For portable equipment, this may mean replacing the water or treating it to maintain sterility.

Final Thoughts

Emergency eyewash stations and safety showers are important for any workplace using hazardous materials. As an effective backup solution to help prevent chemical exposure or contaminants from harming its employees. However, all workplaces are different and so will have unique shower requirements. Following ANSI Standard directives will ensure equipment is in the best location and operates effectively.

Making sure you have enough eyewash and showers stations is crucial. They should be located in the most accessible area of your facility. Keep them well-lit and free from obstruction. And remember to check shower flow rates regularly, and ensure they remain in good working order.

If you need more information about emergency safety showers or eyewashes, get in touch with AbsorbentsOnline today. We’d be happy to help.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is An Emergency Shower?
• How Often Should Safety Showers Be Checked?

How often should you check your safety shower? It’s probably more often than you think!

A safety shower is an important feature of any building that uses hazardous chemicals, and it’s important to make sure that they stay up to scratch.

Checking your safety shower regularly isn’t just important for making sure it stays in the right condition – it’s also an important regulation that needs to be followed.

If you aren’t sure how regularly to check your safety shower, then this guide has got you covered. Here we’ll walk you through how often you should be checking your safety shower so you can make sure it stays in proper order.

So let’s take a look at how often eyewash and emergency shower equipment should be checked.

What Is A Safety Shower?

First, let’s take a look at what a safety shower actually is.

In short, a safety shower is a shower designed to wash away harmful chemicals and substances from your clothes and your body.

They are typically found in labs, job sites, and other work areas where there is a risk of encountering these harmful materials. Including airborne contaminants such as dust, and caustic liquids like acids.

Safety showers are also commonly accompanied by an emergency eyewash station. As you might guess, eyewash units are meant to wash chemicals and other harmful substances from the face and eye area to try and prevent damage to your vision and skin.

Combination units typically feature an overhead drench hose and a separate eye/face wash area. This emergency equipment provides a tepid flow of flushing fluid either from a plumbed or potable source.

Safety showers and eyewash equipment are crucial inclusions to every lab or site that works with hazardous materials. They are vital to ensuring the first aid safety and health of anyone working with these substances.

Why Do You Need To Check Your Safety Shower?

The first thing you need to do when you’re looking into whether to check a safety shower on a regular basis is to find out exactly how frequently you need to check them.

There are two main reasons why you’d want to check your safety shower:

Make Sure That It’s Working Properly

The most obvious reason to check your safety shower is to make sure that it’s functioning properly. For instance, that the spray pattern from a plumbed eyewash provides a tepid water temperature at the appropriate flow rate.

If you don’t check your emergency shower regularly, there could end up being an issue that you don’t know about. Like sediment build-up causing an obstruction in the spray nozzle. Or, a loose activation handle that may prevent proper operation.

Not only will these problems keep the shower from working properly, but it also means that you won’t be able to use it if there is an emergency.

To Conform To OSHA Guidelines

As mentioned earlier, checking your safety shower frequently to make sure it is working is necessary to follow regulations.

The guidelines set by OSHA (or the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) are put in place to ensure that your workplace has the correct safety equipment available, and violating these regulations could land your workplace in serious trouble.

Not complying with these guidelines can lead to heavy fines, sometimes in excess of $100,000, so you need to make sure that your facilities are up to scratch.

When dealing with hazardous substances, like corrosive fluids, safety is of the highest concern. Without functional safety facilities like a safety shower and emergency eyewash station, you are putting yourself and your employees at risk of injury.

How Often Should You Test Your Safety Shower?

To properly check your plumbed safety shower and emergency eyewash station, you need to visually inspect and activate them once per week.

An annual inspection service is also necessary, according to American National Standards Institute (ANSI) guidelines.

Regularly performing the appropriate maintenance ensures that the the shower and eyewash equipment will work as intended. It also helps clear lines of potential sediment build-up and stagnant water.

For conformance with ANSI Z358.1-2014, checks include making sure that the water pressure is sufficient, testing for leaks, and cleaning any residue off of the surfaces. Annual inspections should verify correct installation of equipment in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.

If you fail to perform these ANSI standard checks on a regular basis, then you may end up with issues that you aren’t aware of.

While maintaining emergency response equipment might not seem like the top of your priority list (especially if it isn’t used often), it’s still important to check them at these regular intervals to make sure your emergency eyewash station and shower equipment are free from any issues and to conform with OSHA regulations.

How Do You Test A Safety Shower?

Now that you know how often you need to test your safety shower, you need to know what you should actually be checking. Here’s what you need to do for your weekly activation checks:

First, you need to check that both the shower and eyewash station have the appropriate water flow and pressure.

A safety shower needs to be able to produce 20 gallons of water per minute (gpm) at 30 psi. This water needs to come out in a 20-inch diameter spray.

In terms of the shower’s position, the shower head needs to be a minimum of 60 inches above the ground (although 80-90 inches is ideal), with the valve in easy reach.

The emergency eyewash station should produce a much more gentle flow of water as it will be directed towards the eyes.

These facilities need to have around 0.5 gallons per minute, although the water pressure can stay the same at 30 psi.

The nozzle needs to be between 33-45 inches above the floor, and well clear of any obstructions.

To pass their checks, both of these stations need to be able to run for 15 minutes without the water supply’s flow or pressure being interrupted.

They also need to be protected against cold temperatures to avoid complications from freezing, and safe against corrosive materials (for hopefully obvious reasons).

Another thing to check is that emergency shower and eye/face wash stations are easily identifiable. Ensure their locations are clearly marked with a highly visible sign. If applicable, remember to inspect the green light which helps guide people towards them in case of an emergency.

Shower safety equipment should also be easily accessible and well-lit; this means that even if you have a harmful substance in your eye you should be able to find your way to these stations to clear out the irritant.

Final Thoughts

When considering how often should safety showers be checked, know that safety guidelines are there for a reason.

Making sure you test your safety shower and eyewash station at the proper weekly intervals will ensure that you and your colleagues are able to stay safe while working.

While the threat of OSHA fines can be enough to keep you testing these facilities on its own, prioritizing safety in your workplace is essential – especially if you’re working with hazardous materials.

Testing your safety shower and emergency eyewash station to ANSI standards is a crucial part of workplace safety.

Now that you know how often you should be testing your safety shower (as well as how to go about it), all you need to do now is make sure that you stay up to date with these checks.

As long as you test your safety facilities when you should, you can rest assured knowing that you and your colleagues are safer from harm—and from fines!