Why Are Safety Showers So Important?

Regarding workplace safety, chemical-related risks need to be managed effectively to keep your workers as safe as possible. Some of these risks include spills, leaks and the projection of hazardous chemicals and items.

Although all these accidents can cause some harm to workers’ eyes and skin, the more severe accidents involving corrosive chemicals can cause issues such as acid burns, and other such damage to the skin and more.

Of course, the seriousness of these accidents relies on the corrosive itself, but if your workers are ever exposed to something harmful, safety showers are pretty much the frontline defence between your workers and permanent injuries.

So, if your workplace has any risk of your workers getting hurt due to corrosive or harmful chemicals or shrapnel, it’s vital to use safety showers as they will wash off any harmed worker’s body quickly and effectively.

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How Do You Know If You Need A Safety Shower?

The best way to know if you need a safety shower is a comprehensive risk assessment. This assessment will take into account the kinds of injuries that may occur and is based on what is present in the workplace. Such as hazardous chemicals or debris like dust, sand, welding offshoots, or glass in order to identify effective risk management strategies.

Now it’s important to remember that https://www.spillstation.com.au/ are not a foolproof way to prevent these risks, that comes down to primary control measures such as elimination and isolation controls, as well as personal protective equipment (PPE). Safety showers are designed to be a first response to injury to workers and will help prevent further harm from happening.

When Do You Use Safety Showers? 

Safety showers are often used for burn treatment in an emergency or to clean the skin of contaminants to minimise the effects of accidental contact. The general rule is that the area should be flushed for at least 15 minutes directly after contact.

This means, as mentioned above, that safety showers are not really designed to cure a person of a burn, it’s more of a way to ensure that a worker is not further harmed by a chemical burn.

Are There Rules for Installation?

To remain legally compliant with the Australian Standards AS4775 safety showers must be:

  • The distance between them and the hazard must be unimpeded.
  • The shower and hazard must be on the same level.
  • Signage and green light should make the safety washing station easy to spot, and the area around it should be well-lit.
  • The location and operation of the safety washing stations should be obvious to employees.

In addition to the above, safety showers have to be well maintained and activated often to make sure the water quality is correct.

Is there a plumbing-free option?

As safety showers are plumbed, if you can’t have plumbing or work remotely, you can supply portable eye and body wash units. These are often called drench hoses.

It’s important to know that due to their limited capacity and inability to flush the body long enough, these are not government compliant and are designed to give you more time to get workers to a plumbed and compliant safety unit.

One Last Thing

If you think your workplace needs safety showers, and you’d like to perform a risk assessment and find the best safety shower in Australia, Spill Station is your best choice.

Contact them now to get started on your workplace safety.