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
