Hi everyone,

I am having eyewash issues as well and am seeking advice.

We have an eyewash that started giving discolored water upon activation about 1 month ago.  Our Plant services has slowly been looking at the problem but I think I am rapidly hitting a wall and the problem still exists.  I feel like the matter is complicated as I am Lab Manager (where I get plenty of support) and Environmental Safety manager (where I get no support) and this issues affects both facets of my job. 

What we observe is the the water runs orange for the first 2-5 seconds and then clears up.  If we flush it at 8am, the color appears (very lightly but discernible) by 3pm.  Therefore, we have been flushing the eyewash daily as labs are scheduled in that room on a daily basis.  I have basically been told at this point that they think the discoloration will clear itself up over time.   Although the discoloration was worse and longer today after Plant completing an overnight flush Friday to Saturday.  Furthermore, this is an eyewash/safety shower combo so there is often a very slight orange tint to that water as well.  

My question is whether we should insist on taking the eyewash out of use until they really resolve the problem because even with daily flushing the discoloration occurs somewhat rapidly.   There is another eyewash in the lab but it is one of those faucet mounts that you have to adjust the water and remove the caps before you can use it (I had no input on the choice of this eyewash when the room was renovated.)  I want to make sure I am advising my Chair properly on the matter.  

Also, I asked my manager for the EHS side of my job permission to purchase a copy of ANSI Z358.1 and my request was not granted.  I would really like to see the text for myself so I am thinking I need to purchase it on my own at this point.  Will the actual text of the standard enlighten me more than just the free summaries that I have poured over?

Help!  I just want to keep the lab safe for the students.

Thanks,

Heather

On Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 7:17 PM, Wilhelm, Monique <mwilhelm**At_Symbol_Here**umflint.edu> wrote:

Hello Everyone,

I know I will be seeing a lot of you on Sunday.  In the meantime, I have a question that I hope someone is available to answer:

If the water system in a chemistry lab is reliant on you having to flush the water every day to have the water be clean in said eye wash, can you still say that the eye wash is meeting standards?  What if you expect that water to be that way (acidic with particulates) for at least several months while you are having work done on the supply pipes?  If the eye wash is not meeting standards, can you legally hold a chemistry class in there that works with corrosives?  Or, do you have to close down the lab until portable eye wash solution can be provided?

I really appreciate any advice you can give me about this.

Thank you,
Monique

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