Boitumelo,

Emergency showers under ANSI standards are supposed to provide a flow of 20 gallons per minute for at least 15 minutes.  I'm hoping those numbers are helpful in defining quantities for your circumstances. 

That's a fair bit of water, and apart from the several issues around where the water goes if there are no drains, I wouldn't be too concerned about standing in the contaminated water after, in this case, 300+ gallons of rinse water mixes with the relatively small volume of contaminant present on a person's skin or clothes.   That will reduce the concentration of anything miscible with water by several orders of magnitude, while such other measures are going on, such as removing contaminated clothing and moving out of the immediate area once the rinsing is completed.

                Don

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Colleagues,

Can anyone pls assist me urgently. I head an Occupational Health Analytical Laboratory facility in Johannesburg. We are about to take over a newly renovated organic chemistry lab. An emergency shower has been installed, but with no drainage. We are being told that that is the norm in South Africa.

Apparently, the General Safety Regulations framed under the OHS Act, Regulation 3 (9) states that "Where an employee at a workplace is exposed or can be exposed to a potential hazard of injury to or absorption through the skin as a result of sudden contact with a large amount of toxic, corrosive, high risk or similar hazardous substance, the employer concerned shall make sure that there is a fast-reacting deluge-shower with clean water or a similar facility in the immediate vicinity of the workplace of such employee and that the employee is trained in the use thereof." There is no definition of large amount and again no reference to drainage to sewer (or otherwise).

I disagree since this would mean that in the event (hopefully rare) of an accident, an employee will wash off the contaminant and still "stand" in the contaminated water. How are your emergency showers configured?

Regards

Boitumelo Kgarebe

National Institute for Occupational Health

Johannesburg, South Africa 

On Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 8:50 PM, Secretary, ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <secretary**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org> wrote:

From: Mary.Biersack**At_Symbol_Here**westpharma.com

Hello,
I am looking for a good industrial hygiene resource for calculating the evaporation rates of a spilled chemical and the amount of ventilation required to keep the chemical spill below the specific chemicals OSHA PEL (ppm).  Does anyone know of any good computer software programs or calculators?

Thanks,
Mary


Mary Biersack
Lab Safety and Chemical Hygiene Specialist
West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc.
P: +1 610-594-3278
530 Herman O. West Drive | Exton, PA 19341 | United States
mary.biersack**At_Symbol_Here**westpharma.com


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