DCHAS-L Archives, Jul 06 2018 - Re: [DCHAS-L] Emergency Shower and Eyewash Temperatures

Mr. Towle,

Back to the original question: "Are there any regulations surrounding eyewash and emergency shower temperatures?"

The answer is No.

OSHA (the regulatory body in our case) has a regulation at 29 CFR 1910.151(c) which requires eyewash/showers to be available where employees can be exposed to chemicals hazardous to the skin or eyes. Nowhere in this rule is a temperature range specified for the water.

OSHA often refers to ANSI [Z]358.1-2004 which does specify a temp range of 85 to 100F, but this is guidance only - not enforceable.

Guidance is good though, because if your employee has to use an ice cold or scalding hot eyewash/shower, your insurance company will be much displeased and their lawyer will be dancing all the way to the bank.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

Ron Harvey

Echelon Environmental

843-599-0330

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronharvey/

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Emergency Shower and Eyewash Temperatures
From: Tyrell Towle <tyrelltowle**At_Symbol_Here**GMAIL.COM>
Date: Fri, July 06, 2018 11:23 am
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU

Thank you for your input, everyone! This is a lot of great information for me to use moving forward.

Upon further inspection of our setup, there is a single mixing valve beneath each handwashing sink that feeds both the sink and the emergency eyewash. Has anyone encountered this configuration before? To me, it seems that there should be a separate mixing valve for the handwashing sink and the eyewash since they have different temperature requirements.

Anyway, thank you, again!

-Tyrell

On Fri, Jul 6, 2018 at 11:56 AM, Chance, Brandon <bchance**At_Symbol_Here**mail.smu.edu> wrote:

Also, remember that mixing valves fail. I have had situations where mixing valves that served all of the units on a floor have failed on the hot side, resulting in a complete system having water above 120F. We have asked our Facilities group to ensure the valves are part of the building preventative maintenance plan after we had to rebuild or replace a number of them.

Regards,

Brandon S. Chance, MS, CCHO

Director of Environmental Health and Safety

Sustainability Committee Chair

Office of Risk Management

Southern Methodist University

PO Box 750231 | Dallas, TX 75275-0231

T) 214.768.2430 | M) 469-978-8664

bchance**At_Symbol_Here**smu.edu

"- our job in safety is to make the task happen, SAFELY; not to interfere with the work-" Neal Langerman

From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety on behalf of Penny Manisco
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety
Date: Thursday, July 5, 2018 at 6:14 PM
To: "DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU"
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Emergency Shower and Eyewash Temperatures

Hi All,

This is so weird because this exact thing happened in one of our newly renovated labs. A few weeks ago I was instructing students on flushing eyewash and safety shower and noticed the shower was scalding hot. The eyewash/shower had been installed last summer and has been fine all year. I checked a second system in that lab only to find that the shower was not functioning at all. It turned out that someone (contractors remodeling a restroom perhaps?) had erroneously turned off the cold water valve that feeds the emergency equipment. That caused scalding water at one end of the room, and no pressure at the other. The eyewash and shower are fed with water from a mixing valve.

This is why we check!

Best,

Penny Manisco

Chemical Hygiene Officer

Harvey Mudd College

On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 2:14 PM, Tyrell Towle <Tyrell**At_Symbol_Here**medpharmholdings.com> wrote:

Hello everyone,

This may seem like a basic question, but I am getting some pushback from our plumbing contractors on this.

We have a brand new facility and I went through to test all of the eyewash and emergency shower stations. At first everything seemed to be working fine, but then I noticed that the emergency eyewash water was getting warmer. I was horrified when the eyewash water became hot. I have never encountered hot eyewash water before. I had the contractors re-plumb the eyewash stations into cold tap water only. Now they are pushing back, wanting to hook the eyewash stations back into the hot water.

I also noticed that our emergency shower is releasing hot water.

Are there any regulations surrounding eyewash and emergency shower temperatures? My understanding has always been to have cold, potable tap water running into emergency showers and eyewashes so that chemical reactions are not accelerated upon exposure to heat. Regardless, with the temperatures that our eyewash stations were reaching, there was no way that anyone could keep their eyeballs open for 10 minutes in this water. Any information is appreciated, especially information that will put this debate to rest.

Thank you!

Tyrell R. Towle, Ph.D.
Senior Chemist
MedPharm Holdings, LLC
www.medpharmholdings.com

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--

Penny Manisco,
Chemical Hygiene Officer
Harvey Mudd College

(909)6074217

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--- For more information about the DCHAS-L e-mail list, contact the Divisional membership chair at membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org Follow us on Twitter **At_Symbol_Here**acsdchas

--- For more information about the DCHAS-L e-mail list, contact the Divisional membership chair at membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org Follow us on Twitter **At_Symbol_Here**acsdchas

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